


Intergalactic

by yuniesan



Series: Thanos Murder Squad [4]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, April 7 1970, Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Avengers: Endgame Fix-It, Avengers: Engame Spoilers, Doctor Potts & Captain Stevens, Don’t copy to another site, F/F, F/M, Family Fluff, Fix-It, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Getting Together, Grief/Mourning, Happily Ever After, I love you 3000, I only kept the things I liked, I reject certain parts of Canon, M/M, Natasha Romanov Dies, Not Beta Read, POV Steve Rogers, POV Tony Stark, Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Sad with a Happy Ending, So I'm rewriting the whole movie, So many tags, Some of the dialogue from the movie, Some people that died in Infinity War live in my world, Tagging as I go to avoid spoilers, Thanos Murder Squad, The guys actually reacting to Nat's Death, There maybe some Avengers Assemble stuff, They're not okay, This is a Steve/Tony Event, This some how turned into a full AU timeline, Tony's Snap, We deserved better than that, because fuck that ending, just adjusted to better fit the story, some dialogue from the comics, the fighting and yelling happens, we die like heroes on this train
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2020-02-16 15:29:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 77,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18694252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuniesan/pseuds/yuniesan
Summary: In the aftermath of the snap, the Avengers work together to find a way to get everything they wanted back. With the help of new allies, and old friends, will they be able to achieve their endgame?





	1. A Traveler from Two Worlds

**Author's Note:**

> This story happens at the same time as Floating, like how Infinite and Endless happened at the same time. It will updated hopefully once a week.
> 
> I rejected certain aspects of the canon in the MCU, like Wasp being alive in the fic, or other characters that Marvel confirmed dead because fuck their logic. Also, this is slightly not compliant with a lot of things, but hell is anything in Fanfiction ever really compliant? Also, I may have killed some characters for the story's sake, pre-snap deaths because I have too much power, but also because it means bringing in more characters and make it even more emotional. Because Fuck you MCU you're not taking my ships away, I have some canon ships that I love and adore and they're going to have their chance in the sun or so help me I'm going to stab a piece of bread (I'm not really a violent person I swear) Steve/Tony is canon in any universe no matter what anyone says.
> 
> Also, I used lines from both the movie, from the fight between Steve and Tony, and the comics, from Avengers Prime, as a part of the story, because I might as well find a balance between the two.
> 
> P.S. I'm only really good at writing long fics when its contemporary romance or high school AU's, but I'm trying really hard with this one series because I love them and they deserve the best in life. Who knows maybe one day I'll write a modern day AU for them and not have to deal with figuring out if I'm pacing a fight scene correctly. 
> 
> For now enjoy the story!!

The moment Rhodey said Carol, Tony couldn’t help but stare at the blonde walking towards them, her hair a little flat after taking off the helmet or at least he thought it was a helmet he wasn’t entirely sure, she had a scowl on her face her eyes looking everywhere as if in search of someone. Tony remembered his best friend’s once crush on a woman named Carol, he remembered seeing her during a visit to the base, before she all but vanished from their lives. Tony had only met her once or twice, he couldn’t remember for certain, those years were a little hazy and there were too many regrets there, but he also remembered that Rhodey had pinned for the woman but never did anything about his feelings, it mostly had to do with another woman at the time. He remembered that it was one of a few times in their friendship where his best friend had gotten shitfaced drunk about the relationship he couldn’t have.

“They’re so good together,” Rhodey had said looking at Tony with this glassy eyed look. “I can’t get between that, and there’s a kid, they’re happy, so I’ll drink to my crush, and I’ll let it die.”

Tony was never sure about how much Rhodey remembered from that day, but he had let go, dated some random girls for a while that suspiciously looked like Carol and tried to move on. It wasn’t until he had heard about her dying that the man broke down crying once again, he was glad that she had had a happy life. Tony tried his best to be there for him for that, because he had been there for him when his parents died, and even more when Jarvis had died. That was when Rhodey had lost the happiness inside of himself and threw everything he could into his work. He had even become friends with Maria Rambeau and her daughter, who had been his last links to Carol Danvers. Even with only the memory, Tony remembered that there were times that Rhodey would just disappear, he would visit the Rambeau girls bringing them gifts and they would hang out, Rhodey usually helping out around the house, or at least that’s what he had told Tony.

Before Tony himself had become Iron Man, he remembered the day that Rhodey had gotten a frantic call from Monica Rambeau, her mother had gone missing during a mission, like with Tony, Rhodey searched for Maria, she had become a sister to him and he didn’t want to let Monica down, the woman’s body had been recovered soon after. He had lost a friend after that, and Tony had been so involved in himself that he hadn’t been there for Rhodey. Tony wasn’t sure what had happened to Monica after the snap, but the reappearance of Carol Danvers was going to throw so much of the man’s equilibrium out of place that Tony wasn’t sure about how his friend was going to survive this new development.

She looked different than Tony remembered, but he really didn’t remember much from the time, he had just started running Stark Industries and was dealing with so much loss. He was lucky he remembered anything that happened in the early nineties, he was sure that there had been some kind of explosion on the highway or something, but he really couldn’t remember. Something about a huge fight happening between an old lady and some woman, but it was before cell phones were really a thing, so no one really knew what had happened. Tony had just brushed it off, he had had bigger things to worry about.

Just as she walked towards them, Rhodey was about to launch himself towards the woman as fast as his mechanical legs could take him, but Tony was wary of new visitors, stopping his best friend from moving forward. They didn’t know if this was the same woman that Rhodey had known all those years ago, she could be someone that Thanos had sent. Tony just stood there, holding Rhodey back, Nebula on his other side, she looked over at the new arrival with caution

“What happened,” he heard Steve said as the man rushed out of the building still holding onto those glove shield things that apparently T’Challa had given him. Which only made Tony feel a little guilty for still having the shield down in his workshop. He needed to take the chance and give it back, they needed to move forward in all of this if they were really going to try and fix everything.

“It looks like we have another visitor,” Tony motioned to Carol who looked at them warily. “I honestly don’t know where she came from because last, I heard she had died in the nineties, but if Fury can find you then, I guess anything is possible.”

Tony couldn’t help but look over and see the man standing next to him, his clothes were a little looser, not the same tight shirts they had all made fun of over the years, the beard was still a sight to see, but Tony missed the clean shaved Captain America he had come to know. Steve’s depression beard was just another reminder of what had happened between the two of them in the last few years. Tony as much as he didn’t want to have a fight with Steve, was still holding onto some of the resentment over it all. He had the urge to tinker, he needed a moment where he wasn’t overwhelmed by how many people were around them, how much had changed, or the fact that there were a lot of people missing from their lives.

Even now he still couldn’t get a hold of Pepper and Happy and he wasn’t sure what to do about that, he didn’t know if he could deal with anymore loss. Instead of saying anything else, he tapped Steve’s shoulder and walked off in search of Bruce, with the need to help Vision’s recovery along a little more. He knew that he was leaving behind Steve to deal with whatever the hell was happening out there, he knew it wasn’t the best to just walk away but he couldn’t stop thinking about everything, even after a good night’s rest and waking up wrapped up in a super soldier, there were still so many things he needed to get off of his chest, but he didn’t want to tip the balance over whatever for of peace they had gained. Too many were gone, their friends and family were hurting, he didn’t want to have that conversation he just wanted to let it go, and if the only way he could do it was to walk away at that moment and collect his thoughts, well that’s what he was going to do.

Steve stood there watching as Tony walked off, he wanted to follow the other man, but instead he opted to greet their new visitor, Rhodes and Nebula next to him, Nebula looking at Tony’s retreating figure like she wanted to follow him as well. There had been something in Tony’s eyes just before he walked away, and Steve couldn’t bring himself to ask what was wrong. It was still all too fresh in their minds, and he was sure that somewhere he still wasn’t forgiven for all the wrongs that had happened between them. That morning had been a surprise, the fact that Tony had felt comfortable enough to relax around him after Siberia, after the decimation around them, but it was still a fragile bond and one he didn’t want to push too far.

Their new visitor was walked over to them, Steve couldn’t help but look at Rhodes who was smiling like he had just won the lottery, the man was beaming as if the sun had just risen in front of him, “Where’s Fury?” she asked him directly. Nodding at Rhodes before she addressed him, which meant that there was something bigger at play.

“Gone,” he said wondering why she hadn’t asked Rhodes about Fury when it looked like they knew each other, but pushed it aside. “How do you know Fury?”

“We met the last time I was here, he helped me and I helped him, I told him that if he ever needed me to send me a message,” she said and he could see a twinge of sadness in her eyes before it was gone.

“I guess it was something he did before Thanos killed half of every living thing on this planet, and the universe as a whole,” he said to her before turning towards Rhodes. “How do you two know each other?” asking the question that was on his mind from the moment he saw the smile on the other man’s face.

“Air Force, we trained at the same base a long time ago,” Rhodes answered, a hint of something more there, but Steve knew that it wasn’t his place to ask, instead he nodded his head and motioning for them to follow, Nebula walking towards the far end of the conference room that they had been working out of until Tony had come back, Sharon and Nat were working on finding out who lived amongst the heroes that they knew. Behind him Rhodes and their newest arrival talked in hushed tones, before putting quieting as they approached the table.

“Did Fury leave anything behind,” Steve asked looking over at the continuing images of everyone they had lost just weeks before.

 “Ross said that Fury left something next to his car, something that was beeping,” Sharon said looking at the woman standing next to Steve. “I’m guessing she was the one on the other side of that considering her outfit.”

“What do you mean?” Steve was honestly confused but it’s been a very trying time for all of them, so he didn’t know what was up from what was down.

Sharon instead walked over to one other the other workstations and pulled out a machine that he hadn’t ever seen, “This was where we found Fury’s car, when we found it, well it was on and there was a symbol on it, the same one that’s on her outfit.”

“There’s more to SHIELD than what Fury told us,” Nat said to him while the holoscreens worked in front of her. “I feel like even when we dug up all of their secrets that there were things that had been deliberately left out.”

“It was probably a good thing that Fury was so paranoid then,” he said, even though he hated the secrets that Fury had kept when everything had happened.

“The real question is who exactly are you?” Sharon had asked looking directly at the woman standing at the center of all of the questions they currently had. “And where have you been all of this time?”

“My name is Carol Danvers, or Captain Marvel if you want the other identity I go by and I’ve been out there working with other planets over the years, Fury could have contacted me at any time, but he didn’t until now and I want to know why, considering how you’re all working at this moment, why didn’t he call when everything was at its worse.”

Because Fury had the Avengers, and Steve knew that, except they were too stupid to actually listen to anyone and instead found themselves split up. Steve could feel the churning in his gut, the feeling that he had messed up the moment he had made one decision. And even if Tony could forgive him, he knew for a fact that they still had to work through a lot of what had happened.

“Because he didn’t need you, or at least he thought he hadn’t needed you,” Steve said knowing just how much of this was truly his fault.

“That’s a conversation for another day,” Natasha said her eyes looking at picture after picture of everyone they’ve confirmed to be dead, she wanted to stop him from saying any more, but the guilt had been building up for weeks along with the anger that he had been holding in against Thanos. “Right now, we just have to worry about how to reverse the effects of what Thanos did, and if you can help that’s fine by us, if not I don’t really care.”

Steve knew that Natasha was a natural leader, more so then he felt most days, he could lead the Avengers until he was blue in the face, but look where it got them, and he didn’t know if he had it in him to try again. “You work together and figure out the next steps in whatever it is we’re doing, I’m going to check in with Tony and Bruce and see if there’s anything we can do to find out where Thanos had gone off too.”

He didn’t wait for a reply, he just walked off, just the thought of him not being able to be a real leader anymore, the thought that he had let this all happen all because he hadn’t told Tony about his parents, that he hadn’t listened to Tony at all after the whole Ultron incident. He needed to make amends with it all, but he also needed to forgive himself for his past mistakes and he knew that it was going to take a long time to do so, and that wasn’t something that they really had a lot of.

* * *

 

Tony walked into the lab where Bruce was working on Vision’s vital signs, Shuri long gone after passing out from working too much without sleep. They had all lost something, but she had lost her brother and Tony understood how that kind of pain was going to drive her, hopefully in a better direction than his own pain had driven him when he had found out the reason why he had lost his mother.

“Is there anything we can do to speed this along?” he asked wondering if what Vision really needed was the stone, or a variation on the stone itself.

“I don’t know, by all means he should have woken up by now, but he hasn’t and I’m not sure why, maybe he needs the mind stone, but we don’t have that and there’s no way to get it either,” Bruce said putting together another calculation on the screen. “You wouldn’t know where we could find another stone do you?”

Tony knew that it was a joke but they needed that stone, they needed Vision, and mostly he needed to hear that something was going right for once, “Think we could make one,” he said knowing that it was a long shot, but he had been thinking about finding a way to synthesize something for Vision. “I mean, I did create an element in the basement of my Malibu house so who knows what we’re capable of right now.”

“Are you looking for something to do?”

“Yes, and honestly I don’t know where to start Big Green, I really don’t know,” he sighed before sitting in the chair next to Bruce. “When I had to get here, when it was just me and Nebula, there was a million things to worry about, a million things to do, and now I feel a little lost about where I should start.”

“It’s because you do too much sometimes, but right now it’s more about where do we go from here,” Bruce looked over at him with a small sad smile. “We lost Tony, we really lost and in the only reason nothing we did worked was because we were all trying so hard to keep everything together that in the end, we were so broken that it couldn’t be fixed.”

“I thought that you weren’t that kind of doctor?”

“Funny,” he said but sighed as he pulled away from the calculations he had been running. “I’m not, but I guess maybe it’s what we need right now.”

“Yeah well our resident therapist got dusted so we’re going to have to deal with everything on our own,” Tony said feeling guilty as he said it, he wasn’t close to Sam Wilson, he wishes that he had been closer to the man, but the divide was already there between his world and Steve’s. As he thought about it all he looked at the stillness inside of the cradle, Vision inside, but nothing was truly working. “Do we still have the notes on the stone?”

“Yeah, they’re on one of the screens,” Bruce said pointing towards the mixture of screens all around them, “but I’ve been looking at everything for so long and nothing makes any sense, so I really don’t know where to start.”

“We start at the beginning... well without accidentally creating a murderbot,” he said heading over to the holoscreen that held all of their notes that they had collected about the mind stone, from before Vision came to be, even some that Tony had gotten from him after he had come to life. He wondered if there was a way to make everything work. Pulling up the notes from the element that had once powered his heart and working on calculations about the powers of the stone, Tony and Bruce worked on every calculation they could think about. Nothing was working, and Tony knew that Bruce was a little frayed at that point. The battle of New York felt like a million years ago, that first conversation in the lab when they were on the helicarrier, everything felt like a horrible dream that led to this.

They were at it for a little while before the cradle sent a shock through the system, Tony thought it could have been an aftereffect of Thor’s powers, but it ended up electrocuting Bruce, and sending out the Hulk for the first time in weeks. The problem with that was the Tony had been right next to him when it had happened, and Bruce had knocked him into the wall on the far side of the room. He didn’t hear the doors open, all he knew was that one moment he was trying to breathe again, and the next Steve was standing in front of him.

“What did I tell you about pushing Bruce too far with your jokes?” Steve said, and Tony couldn’t help but want to push the man away again. They had lasted one day without a fight, he was still staring at this bearded version of Captain America and it felt like nothing had actually changed between them, like nothing was ever going to change, they would fight and fight over anything even when it wasn’t Tony’s fault.

“Yeah well now we have a Hulk, so it shouldn’t really matter,” he said, even though it wasn’t his fault that it had happened. Well except that he probably broke something when he was sent flying.

“It matters when one moment you two are fine and the next you’re next to a broken wall because he sent you flying across the room,” Steve huffed at him. “You need to learn to think before you do something stupid.”

The Hulk stood there for a moment, it was the most normal thing that Tony had ever seen, almost like Bruce had him in control, but the moment was gone when the Hulk smashed his way through one of the glass walls, grumbling about being woken up. From the other side Valkyrie and Nebula followed the Hulk after rushing over from the sound, Hulk acknowledging the Asgardian as if they were friends before pushing his way down the hallway.

“You want to have this fight then have at it Rogers,” Tony said not having the urge to call the man Steve because he couldn’t bring himself to remember the night before. The flair of hope for something more. “We’ve been brewing towards it for how long now,” Tony couldn’t help but feel the push of his ribs against his chest, the Hulk had done a number on him and he knew he was bruising at that moment. Hoping his ribs weren’t broken he looked up at the eyes of the man who had been a part of his life, whether dead or alive.

Tony heard the tell tale sounds of footsteps, he knew that their friends were there looking at what had happened but all he could do was look at the paragon of all that was good and holy in his life and want to punch him. It was always one step forward and three steps back with the two of them, and it felt like there was never going to be a common ground no matter how hard they tried.

“You know what kills me is that you’re angry at me for something that wasn’t my fault, that for some reason if I defended myself against what had happened you wouldn’t have listened to me,” he said, his ribs hurting as his breath left him. “Even with what happened with Thanos, I saw it coming, I saw that god damned mothership on the other side of the wormhole, I saw it in the vision that Wanda had given me, I wanted us to stay together, but no you had your own agenda.”

Steve looked at him like Tony had physically punched him in the face, for some reason it reminded him of the first time the mind stone had messed with them, “I needed you, I needed my family with me, I told you all that this was coming, and nope no one listened to me, Bucky was more important, your freedom was more important, I wanted to put a suit of armor around the world and protect what was precious to us, because that’s what we needed.”

“Well, that didn’t work out now did it,” Steve said and it almost felt like he was going to fight back, as the other man stepped closer to him. Tony was so tired of fighting but it was just another reminder of what they were going to be to one another no matter what.

“I said we’d lose, you told me that we’d do it together, and guess what we lost Steve,” he said his voice getting louder, and he knew that everyone behind him could hear him and he didn’t really care. “ _You_ weren’t there on that stupid planet galaxies away after some madman all but threw a moon at me and took everything away from me. But that’s what we do, right? Our best work after-the-fact? We’re the Avengers? We’re the A-vengers?! Not the Pre-vengers? Right?”

Tony could feel the air leaving him, he was fighting against Steve again and it hurt more this time because they had lost so much, he didn’t want to lose anything else, “I’m done fighting Steve,” he said because he couldn’t do it anymore. “I’ve got nothing left.”

Steve stood there, seeing nothing but hurt in the other man’s eyes, and he didn’t know what he could do, he didn’t know how it had gotten this far so quickly, they had only been together one day, they hadn’t work towards anything, and now he was standing there once again fighting against Tony.

“I’ve got _nothing_ for _you_ , Cap. I got no co-ordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero, zip, nada,” Tony said looking at him as he clutched his side before the cradle holding Vision sparked, sending out an electrical current, that was when he knew that he had made a mistake, he had fought against Tony for something that wasn’t the other man’s fault. He was guilty of so much it hurt him.

“Tony,” he was going to say that he was sorry, but before the words could leave him Tony collapsed into his arms, his breath wheezing out of him.

“Tony,” someone yelled but Steve felt everything muffle around him, all his saw was Tony’s still form in his arms. “Shit, get a stretcher,” the voice said Steve felt like everything had gone backwards so fast and he couldn’t stop it. The cradle sparking again next to him this time sending a shock towards him.

Everyone worked quickly around him, Tony was taken away leaving Steve sitting on the ground next to Vision’s lifeless body, the one thing they had hope for. It felt hopeless, they had no way of making sure that Vision would wake up, they had no way of knowing if they were going to be able to change everything, all they had was hope and for Steve that hope was slowly dwindling.

“You know I was certain that with everything going on that the two of you would get you heads out of your asses and not fight for once,” someone said as they stood over Steve. Looking up he saw Rhodes standing over him. “But I think you two have so much that you need to get through that it would take a while before anything went back to normal.”

Steve looked down at where Tony’s body had been, a question on his lips that had been there since after that first fight with one of Thanos’ minions, “Why did you forgive me so easily?”

“I didn’t really, I just knew that there was something bigger that we had to deal with, I know you and Tony have your issues, hell Tony’s issues could fill three hundred books and still not be enough, but I knew that we needed to start somewhere,” he said to Steve and he knew that it was the truth. “Honestly speaking, you two can’t function without the other, the fighting was inevitable, but in the end you both end up gravitating towards one another.”

Rhodes started walking towards the door, the sound of his braces reminding Steve of everything the man had lost, “Listen Steve,” he said as he stood at the other end of the room. “I forgive you, honestly, I know you and I have been on different ends of everything involving Tony, but I also know that without you he would work himself to death, and without Tony you wouldn’t have the motivation to keep going. It’s one of the reason I’m certain of this, that you have that stupid beard, you don’t forgive yourself for any of it, but eventually you’re going to shave and Tony is going to blow something up, and you’ll both move on, because it’s what you do, but this time just follow your heart.”

“I tried that last time.”

“No, you didn’t, you just wanted what you thought was right, even if it wasn’t, but that’s in the past, follow what your heart is telling you right at this moment, because right now that where all the hope in the world is for you.”

Rhodes left the room, the fading crunching sound of glass was the only indicator that the man had been there in the first place. Steve sat on the ground thinking about what the man had said, about where his heart was telling him to go, all he knew was that he wanted to be there with Tony. He thought back to that first real conversation that they had had when Tony had gotten back to earth, about how good it felt just to banter about some inane thing like how they looked.

_“You need a haircut by the way, but then again I do like the little curls that are forming at the ends of your hair.”_

_“Look who’s talking, when was the last time you had a haircut,” Tony had said to him with a smile. “You look like Kurt Cobain with a beard.”_

_“Hey, I understood that reference,” Steve had told him while smiling back._

_“Who taught you about Cobain? And do I have to shoot them?”_

_“I looked him up when I was reading about the 1990’s, plus everyone recommended some kind of music to me, it was Wanda that told me to listen to Nirvana.”_

He wanted to face Tony again, but not as this Steve Rogers, but as the one that got along with Tony Stark, as the one that had been friends with him long before the fight in Siberia, without what Tony had dubbed his depression beard. So, instead of heading towards medical, Steve made his way towards his room, ignoring the laughing coming from the common area, ignoring those in the kitchens as they called out to him. He locked the door of his room and looked at the one place he had left behind, his home, it had been something that Tony had given him, something tangible in this new world. He had made friends here, a family, and even though he had constantly denied it, he had also fallen for the wayward genius.  

The razor was sharp against his skin, but he hadn’t really noticed, it was strange that what he was seeing for the first time in a long time was what the journey had done to him. Even when the beard was gone, and his face looked as it once had, he saw that he had aged. He was older in so many ways, even though Tony would tell him that he had a baby face, he knew that he was no longer that boy from Brooklyn, the man out of time, he had found his place in his new world, all that was truly keeping him back was himself and he hated it. He hated that small part of him that had tried to hard to hold onto something that no longer existed, Bucky had been his link to the past, so had been Peggy, but he didn’t need them to remember who he had once been. He saw it in the way he had carried on for the last few years, but he needed to move on, the past was just that in the past and all the was left was an uncertain future.

When he finished cleaning up, he dressed quickly and walked towards the med bay, seeing Tony through the glass window on a hospital bed. The Hulk must have done a number on him, and Steve felt guilty for insinuating that Tony had asked for it. He stood at the door, not really sure if he was welcomed in the room, but he was fine with that, he needed to gain the man’s trust once again, he needed to move forward. It was just one step at a time. He needed to see Tony for who he was, to listen without reacting, to just be there for the other man.

“I can hear you thinking over there,” Tony said from the bed, his voice hoarse as his eyes stayed close. “I’m in pain but I’m not stupid enough to not know when you’re standing there.”

Steve sighed before moving forward. “Tony, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Don’t brush it off, you were right about a lot of what you said, I let you down, I let everyone down, I’m not good a being a leader. Tony, All those things… All the things I said and did… I’m… I’m so so sorry,” he said as he stood over the bed where the other man lay. “I know that’s not enough, but I hope that you will allow me the chance to earn your friendship back,” Steve knew that it was all he could even hope for at the moment. “I don’t deserve it… I just hope you let me. I’m not half as good at… at anything as I am when I’m doing it next to you. And that’s the truth.”

For the first time since he had entered the room, Tony opened his eyes, there were tears forming, but the man laughed them off, quickly wiping them away. “You know you’re really good at that,” he said with a laugh. “The speech thing,” he wiped the tears away before opening his arms for a hug that Steve took gladly.

In that moment Steve cried as well, they had been friends once upon a time, even with everything that had happened, he still wished for more, but he didn’t want to push the boundaries on their fragile bond. “This time,” he said whispering into Tony’s ear, “When I say together, I mean we’re in this together, even if we fix everything, I won’t leave your side, I promise.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Tony said, neither of them making the move to let go. It was a comfort that he was willing to take.

There’s a visible change in their relationship after that, Tony knows this, he understands this, but it’s still a little strange. Especially since he opened his eyes and saw a beardless Steve Rogers in front of him, chiseled to perfection. Steve had always been good at giving speeches, especially when things were going south fast, he hadn’t said much when Tony was yelling at him, but he made up for it in spades at that moment. Now, he was just Steve Rogers, that guy he got to know over the years, his friend, and while Tony wished for more he was just going to take what he could get.

“Oh, look who’s up,” he heard Rhodey say from the door.

“You know you two should just kiss and make up already, it’s bad for team moral if you keep fighting because you want to get into each other’s pants,” Natasha said walking in past Rhodey, which only made Tony laugh before he finally let go of Steve, only to see the other man blush. That was a new development.

“We found Pepper and Happy, they’re on their way here,” Rhodey said pulling Tony out of his thoughts.

“Where?” he said happy to hear that he hadn’t lost everyone.

“They were trapped in one of the underground parking lots at Stark Industries out in California, apparently the snap caused a plane to fall, luckily they got back into the building but couldn’t get out until crews started digging,” Natasha told him as she sat on one of the plastic chairs next to the bed. “We’re finding people, and the ones connected to us are being brought here.”

“Peter’s Aunt?”

“She’s on her way, she knew that he went with you.”

“She must be angry at me about that whole thing,” he said remembering the feeling of Peter fading in his arms. “I’m angry about the whole thing.”

“We all are,” Steve said to him the blushing Captain gone. “We’ll find him don’t worry, until then we just have to stick together.”

“Also, you have to stay in that bed for the rest of the day,” Rhodey said which made him groan. “I know you hate it, but the Hulk broke two of your ribs, and while I know that you think that you’re invincible Tones, you’re not so stay put.”

“Fine whatever,” Tony said throwing his hands up in the air, which in all honesty was the worse idea because it only made his chest hurt more. “How’s our new guest?”

At that Rhodey looked to the ground, if it were possible for the man to want to hide, it was at that moment, “She’s fine, we caught up a little, there’s a lot to unpack.”

“Like how she got those powers of hers,” Natasha said.

“From the tesseract,” Rhodey said causing both Steve and Tony to look at him. “I read up on your first battle together, and when I asked her while you two were having your little fight, she told me about an explosion from a battle and a blue light.”

“That’s how Wanda got her powers too, well not from an explosion, but from one of the stones,” Steve said to the group. “How is it possible for the stones to give people powers like that?”

“We don’t know, I mean it gave Vision some advanced powers too, but that’s something we never got to the bottom of, we only really had two stones in our possession,” Tony told them, wondering just how much power those stones had, they’ll never know until they find Thanos.

“Why does it feel like when we think we’ve seen it all there’s always something there to pull the rug out from right under us?” Steve said looking over at the group.

“We have to keep looking at it like a puzzle, we don’t have all of the pieces, but when we do we’re going to have the chance at fixing everything.”

He tried to move only to have them all telling him to sit back, all he did was slump down in defeat, he hated being in medical, but it was nice to have them worry about him. He noticed that behind Rhodey others had joined. Barton was standing next to Nebula and the racoon, next to them were the Zandarians, and behind them was Thor.

“We have something,” Clint said looking at them.

“No rest for the wicked,” Tony said and made to move again only to be pushed back by Steve. “Come on Steve, we need to work.”

“Fine but you’re going in a wheelchair and you can’t complain about it either,” Steve told him before standing up and grabbing the wheelchair that Tony swore hadn’t been there before. Before he could move to get into it, Steve picked him up and slowly put him in the chair, blanket and all. “No complaining.”

“Okay, I get it,” he said but for some reason it felt nice to be taken care of by Steve. “Let’s see what our team found,” he yawned before point towards the door, “Onward my loyal steed.”


	2. Point A – Point B

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How they got from point A to point B may not leave them where they wanted to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some lines from the movie are on here, but from the end of this chapter on the story begins to diverge a little more. Some lines are spoken by the same characters from the same scene in the movie, others were adjusted to better fit the larger group of people now in the story. Also, I am not a scientist, or an engineer, I'm just a writer messing with a lot of things, so please don’t judge my lack of knowledge when it comes to scientific jargon.

The room was packed with more people than Tony had ever seen standing there, he was glad that he had updated the offices and the machinery before he had gone off to Titan, but after seeing the machines on Zandar he itched to upgrade everything, but each time he tried to reach for something as everyone settled into the room Steve pulled him back and gave him that disapproving stare. Without saying anything at all, Steve told him to stay put, which only made him want to tinker with something even more. It was exciting for him, but he was still exhausted over everything. 

“Rocket and Nebula were talking about where Thanos could have gone,” Clint said from the other side of the table. “And then the racoon mentioned something about when Thanos used the stones here on earth he would have created some kind of power imbalance or something.” 

“Yeah, that makes sense you moron,” Rocket said as he walked over the table and started messing with the screens.  

“Don’t call me a moron,” Clint yelled out. 

“Then don’t call me a raccoon.” 

“It’s what you are.” 

“Alright children,” Tony said feeling weird that he was all of a sudden being an adult over the guy with literal fucking children and a walking talking racoon, but then there’s also a walking tree so his life was just going to be that weird and he was just too tired to really care. “Let’s get to the matter at hand, because I’m supposed to be on bed rest, and not refereeing your bickering.” 

Steve grunted behind him, forcing the bickering twosome to focus on the matter at hand, “Well we traced the fluctuation to another planet, and came up with this,” Rocket said before the screen pulled out and mapped a course towards a planet in a faraway galaxy. 

“He used the stones again,” Nebula said looking at the screen in front of her. 

“But for what,” Steve asked as the room studied the screen in front of them. So many eyes on one fixed point, they all wanted the same thing and that was revenge against Thanos. “What’s the point of using them a second time after what he’s done?” 

“We don’t know,” Natasha said to the room. “That’s the problem we have here, we don’t know where this is, why he went there or anything about what his ultimate plans were.” 

“Thanos believed in a balance for all life in the universe, he believed that if he had the power everything would be perfectly balanced and resources wouldn’t be scarce for those living in it,” Nebula said to the room. “Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. Then when he worked, he talked about his great plan. Even disassembled, I wanted to please him. I’d ask, where would we go once his plan was complete? His answer was always the same. To the Garden.” 

“Yeah except when he wiped half of everything, he created an unbalanced universe instead of a balanced one,” Carol said looking at them all, it made Tony wonder just how long he had been in that bed because she wasn’t wearing that red, blue and gold outfit that he had first seen her in. 

“I’m also certain that there were planes falling out of the sky when it had happened,” Scott Lang said from across the room, which made Tony think just how the stone picked who stayed and who went. 

“People died because they didn’t have a pilot, or a train conductor, more than what the snap caused,” Sharon Carter added her face trained on the growing list of people missing or dead. “There’s no balance at all when more died then lived.” 

“So, what would it mean if he used the stones a second time,” Steve said as everyone in the room looked around, none of them sure about the implications of what would happen if Thanos continued to use the infinity stones. 

“When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions,” Rocket said looking around the room while playing with the holograms in front of him. “No one’s ever seen anything like it... until two days ago, on this planet.” 

They all looked at the planet highlighted on the table in front of them. No one said a word, and Tony knew it was because none of them were sure about what was happening. They were in uncharted territory, no matter where they looked, they didn’t know where to go next. There were too many of them, too many possibilities, to many chances at messing everything up. 

“We’d be going in short-handed you know?” Bruce was the first to speak. 

“Not necessarily, we have a lot of people here hell bent on revenge, but we won’t know what to look for without a scouting mission,” Tony said looking around at the group of people that he had helped gather while traveling the universe. 

“He’s still got the stones,” Rhodey said looking around the room, “so...” 

“So, let’s get him and the stones, we use them to bring everyone back,” Carol added to the plan that was now forming in front of them. 

“Just like that,” Bruce questioned, and Tony knew that it had more to do with his current problems controlling the Hulk. 

“Yeah just like that,” Steve said with a fierce determination that Tony knew so well from the years that they worked together. 

“Even if there’s a small chance that we can undo this... I mean we owe it to everyone who’s not in this room to try,” Nat said the reminder of how much they’ve lost over the last month hanging over their heads. 

“If we do this, how do we know it’s gonna end any differently than it did before,” Bruce was still pushing, he was a scientist and Tony knew that he wanted all the variables, but Tony was losing patience with the questions, he felt guilty for being alive when Peter hadn’t lived and the Guardians hadn’t lived, when everyone that have been dusted from the snap had lost everything. 

“Because before, you didn’t have me,” Carol said looking Bruce in the eye, almost like she was willing the Hulk to challenge her. Tony was still uncertain about what she was, she wasn’t air force, not anymore anyway. 

“Hey, new girl,” Sharon said looking the other blonde in the eye. “Every one of these people know about what it’s like to be a superhero, they’ve all risked their lives helping people. And if you don’t mind me asking, where the hell have you been all of this time if you’re so inclined to say anything about this.” 

“There are a lot of planets in the universe,” Carol said calmly the room silent as they looked between her and Sharon. “And unfortunately, they didn’t have you guys.” 

Thor who up until that moment had been quietly sitting in the corner listening to the conversation had gotten up and walked over to Carol and Tony was sure that he was testing her, but he wasn’t sure if it was a good idea until the ax flew towards Thor breaking through one of the walls. 

“Oh, come on,” Tony said looking at the hole in the wall before turning back to the Thor who had just let out a smile. 

“I like this one,” Thor said a huge smile on his face. 

“Yeah well I don’t like holes in my walls, Thor buddy, we’ve talked about this,” Tony said wheeling himself over to the hole to inspect the damage, Steve with an exasperated look on his face, let him go. 

“We need a team,” Steve said, and Tony knew that he was going into full Captain America mode and ignoring what had just happened. “We need to go after him and get the stones, and from there we can work out what to do with him after we’ve brought everyone back.” 

“We can take the Benatar,” Rocket said jumping off the table. “It’s can travel at light speed across the known universe.” 

“You can take what you need for the trip,” Tony said knowing that he wasn’t going to be on that mission. He looked up from where he was to see the resignation in Steve’s eyes, they were going to be separated for this, but this wasn’t a mission for a large group of people, they needed stealth and that was more Steve’s expertise, not Tony’s. 

“Who’s going to go and who’s going to stay,” Clint said addressing the elephant in the room, there were too many of them to pick from. 

It was decided that Thor, would join as well as Nebula, Rocket, Carol and Rhodey, which made Tony a little wary about the whole endeavor, Nat and Bruce also joined in, which left Tony a little scared about losing all of his family in one shot, but he was injured and he couldn’t leave the rest of them behind to fend for themselves, not with all of the Asgardians and the Zandarians with them. 

“We’ll work on whatever we can here,” Tony said trying to show a little bit of confidence to his friends. “I’ll see about reviving Vision with Shuri, who knows maybe she’ll have some ideas about what to do with the notes we have from the scepter of doom.” 

“Alright, team, let's go get this son of a bitch,” Steve said to the room. 

“Language,” Tony said before smiling at the other man. 

“You know,” Steve started but the rest of the room, at least those who knew the story, started laughing, it was the first time since he had gotten back, where he felt a feeling of hope that they would get out of this alright. 

Tony was wheeled back to medical by Nebula, he hated that he wasn’t going, but he was more frightened at the prospect of not being able to fix everything. Once in the room, she helped him onto the bed, she hadn’t said a word to him that hadn’t been directly related to what was happening and he knew it was because she was trying to deal with it all. 

“You know,” he started, “There’s a chance that you might have to kill your own father.” 

“I know,” she said a sadness in her voice.  

“Are you regretting leaving Titan without being able to stop him?” 

“I regret not being able to save my sister,” she said her face stoic. “I regret all of the years I spent trying to please him, I regret that even when I wanted my revenge against him and everyone who wronged me, I went about it the wrong way.” 

“We all have regrets in our lives, but I believe what you do from this moment forward will change how others will see you, and maybe how you’ll see yourself. We’re your family now, whether you like us or not we’re going to make sure you don’t stray too far from us.” 

She nodded at him before surprising him with a quick hug, “You’ve helped me more than you know Tony Stark.” 

“I hope to keep that up,” he said feeling like he’s a father whose kid is going off to college, instead of going off on some intergalactic mission where everyone he knows and cares for could possible die. He could feel the tears start before she pulled away, “Just be safe okay,” he told her, not wanting to lose another person to that madman. 

She nodded before walking off, he knew that if she cried, she wouldn’t do it in front of someone else. She didn’t show weakness, not to him, not to anyone, but he really wanted her to come out of her shell just a little bit. He wanted to do for her what Yinsen did for him, that second chance moment was what changed his life. 

“She’s going to be fine you know,” Steve said walking into the room. “I’m not going to let anything happen to anyone.” 

“I just wish I could have gone with you all,” he said as he settled into the pillows. 

“So, do I but we need you here,” Steve told him as he sat down and took his hand, before taking a deep breath. “I need you here, because if you’re not I don’t know what I would do with myself, there’s so much happening all at once, and I don’t know what would happen if we were all lost out there.” 

Tony didn’t want to cry, he really didn’t but he knew what it meant, not just for him but for all of them to have someone to anchor them to home. They could fight each other until they were laying on the ground dying, but what they needed the most was each other. 

“Take care of them,” he said watching as the others were standing out in the hallway, suited up and ready. “I’ll be here waiting some food when you get back.” 

Steve wasn’t sure if they were going on a suicide mission, it made his former life seem like a cake walk compared to what they were going to walk into. He didn’t regret becoming Captain America, he didn’t regret ending up in the ice if it meant that he had these people in his life, this family they’ve created, then it was worth all of the pain and heartache that he has suffered over the years. It made having Tony in his life worth it. 

“I want you to have this,” he said taking out his dog tags, the only thing he still carried around from his past. “I want you to give them back to me when I step off of that ship, just to remind me that I’m home.” 

Tony’s brown eyes looked at him with surprise, they both knew the meaning of the dog tags for soldiers, but for Steve they meant coming home to the one person who challenges him, who forces him to look at the world differently, who doesn’t treat him with kid gloves. Not caring that they had a group of witnesses behind him, wanting to not waste his chances any more than he already has, he leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on the other man’s lips. He didn’t want any more regrets, not when there was the possibility that they might not make it back. He could feel it as Tony hummed against him before he felt the man’s hand reach up and touch his face. 

“As much as I want to scream finally,” Natasha said making the two of them jump apart. “We have a mission to get to.” 

“Plus, she’s angry that she lost a bet,” Rhodey said smiling at them from the door. “And I plan on collecting on that bet when we get back, but before I go,” he walked over and smacked the back of Steve’s head before bending down and hugging Tony. 

“Now now platypus, no hitting,” Tony said but Steve could hear the joy in his voice.  

“I’m allowed, I’m family,” Rhodey said to Tony before turning to Steve. “Trust me I’m not as bad as Pepper’s going to be when she hears about this.” 

There was a moment after Rhodes mentioned Pepper Potts where Tony stiffened, Steve remembering their break up and his own feelings of jealousy when he hadn’t been the one to comfort the man, but that’s something he probably won’t mention to Tony, at least not at that moment. He still wondered how the two made their friendship work after the break-up, because he still couldn’t get the image of Tony sad and despondent out of his mind.  

“Pepper will kill me,” Tony said looking around the room. “Too many people know already.” 

Steve looked to see that Clint and Bruce had joined Natasha and Rhodes, which he hadn’t realized how public that little kiss had become.  

“No one tell her,” Tony said in a panic. 

“Too late,” the tell-tale voice of Ms. Potts sounded off from the back of the group. 

“Uh yeah, we just came here to tell you that she arrived,” Clint said a small smile on his face. “So, we’re going to go now and deal with some stuff,” Steve was sure that he had never seen Clint smirk like that before running off to do something else. It was good that after losing his wife he would be able to smile like that.  

Just as Clint took off, he was followed by Bruce who didn’t say another word, the man was racked with guilt over what had happened in the lab earlier. Nebula followed, them after giving Steve a knowing look, he already knew what she would do to him if he ended up hurting Tony. Leaving behind Ms. Potts, Rhodey, and Natasha, all who were very protective of Tony, even when Steve saw Nat as one of her closest friends, she still berated him and teased over the years over how him and Tony were around one another. 

“Pep.... light of my life,” Tony started but the woman just put her hand up and be stopped talking. 

“I’m still mad at you for getting on that space ship, I told you not to go and you didn’t even listen to me,” she said glaring at Tony. “I may be the C.E.O. but you’re the owner of the company, and don’t get me started on Rogers over here.” 

Steve couldn’t help but stiffen at the way she had said his name, “Now Pepper,” Tony said trying his best to give her puppy eyes, which didn’t faze the woman at all. 

“Listen, there’s too much happening around here and I don’t know how I would have taken it if you had died on some godforsaken planet, and I swear I should have quit for real years ago, but and your no Pepper, you have to do this, you wouldn’t have an opportunity like this again bullshit and I listened,” she had run out of steam, sitting down in one of the vacant chairs next to the bed. “Tony, I know we’re not together anymore, but I can’t lose one of my best friends not after what happened.” 

“I know,” Tony said before silence overtook the room. They had all lost so much in the last few weeks, and Steve knew what Tony’s death would have done to not only those in the room, but to the family they had made over the years. 

Natasha cleared her throat reminding Steve of what they now had to do, “We have to go,” he said to Tony. 

“I know,” he answered as another wave of sadness hit them both, this could be the start of something bigger or the end of it all. 

Steve bent down and kissed Tony on the forehead, “I’ll come back I swear,” he whispered before walking out of the room, he knew if he stopped again, if he looked back, he wouldn’t have the heart to leave. But he needed to do this, not just for Tony, but for everyone who was counting on them.  

“We’ll make it back,” Nat said with a small smile. “I didn’t spend years trying to get the two of you to admit your feelings to give up just when everything was beginning to fit into place.” 

He couldn’t help but laugh and hug her before he grabbed the shields that T’Challa had given him and put it on, “I don’t want to put all that hard work to waste now do I.” 

She patted him on the back as she let go, “This is going to work Steve,” she said before walking off towards the ship that Tony had gotten out of, the ship that had kept him alive and helped him make allies, the one that could bring him a new hope or his death. 

* * *

 

Tony was out of the hospital bed within an hour of Steve leaving, he was still in a wheelchair, but he didn’t want to lay around while the people he cared for risked their lives to find Thanos. Pepper yelled at him for another twenty minutes before walking off towards his room and laying down, Happy had passed out on the bed already. Everyone he knew had lost so much and they still fought to be where they were, so he needed to work to fix things as much as he could as well.  

The lights for his workshop were on as he wheeled himself passed it, which was strange considering all their work was in Bruce’s lab which was a little further down, but he saw Shuri sitting inside throwing a ball for DUM-E and U to go and get. He didn’t want to disturb her, as she worked on distracting herself from what was happening around them, but he couldn’t leave he alone in there with her thoughts, because he knew better than anyone that sometimes your mind was your own worst enemy. 

“He was the first sentient thing that I invented,” he said as he wheeled himself over to where she sat. “He’s like a small child most of the time, and I scream in frustration constantly, but there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for him, or U, or even my A.I.” 

“Are you talking about the voice,” she said once again throwing the ball for the bots. 

“Yes, that’s FRIDAY, she wasn’t my first A.I., though I don’t know why they all come out sassy,” he said shrugging his shoulders. 

“I endeavor to keep you on your toes Boss,” FRIDAY said to them which made him laugh. 

“Yes, you do,” he answered back as DUM-E rushed in front of U to bring the ball back to the Princess. 

“Who was your first?” 

“Well that’s both interesting and complicated at the same time,” he said thinking about Vision’s still form in the next room. “My first A.I. was named Jarvis, after someone I dearly cared about, the man practically raised me, he was a wonderful man and if I could I would say that he was as close to a father figure then my own father was.” 

“Why is it complicated then?” 

“Because when we made Vision, I transferred Jarvis into him, so Vision sounds like him, but it’s not the same. You see Jarvis had been like my child, I had him for a long time before he became Vision, and when Ultron nearly destroyed him, I felt like a parent losing their kid.” 

“Are you glad you made him into Vision now, even though he’s currently laying in that cradle, not moving, and with the possibility of him never coming back,” she said but he also knew that it had to do with the possibility of everyone they cared for never coming back. 

“I’m trying to hope for something better,” he said even though he was scared out of his mind with worry, over not being able to reverse the snap, over the mission the others were now on, over losing even more people that he cared about, over losing himself because of all of this. “What would you say to checking over something for me, I have this idea that maybe we can sensitize the stone out of the information we gathered on it.” 

“Why would you try that?” she said as she stood up from where she was and walked over to him. “Why try so hard to bring him back when there’s nothing but pain in his future.” 

“Because I want Wanda to have something to hope for, to have someone to come home to,” there it was, the truth he had been holding onto ever since the thought of bringing Vision back became an option. He had seen how Vision had changed in the two years since the so-called Civil War between them, how he had pinned over her, before leaving on trips to see her. Tony knew it was happening but he hadn’t stopped Vision from going, because he still blamed himself for things that had been out of his control. For her losing her family, first because of his weapons and then because of Ultron. He wanted to protect the world but sometimes all he brought was destruction and he needed to make amends for all of it. 

Shuri nodded before taking the handlebars on the wheelchair and moving him towards the door, “Let’s go see if we can revive him then.” 

They all needed something to come home to, “Yeah lets,” he said before she wheeled him out of the workshop. “Clean up in here boys, I’ll be back by the end of the day.” 

As they walked out, he saw DUM-E and U rolling around grabbing papers off the floor that had been knocked over while they played, U grabbing the broom and sweeping up the floor. This was his home, made up of a group of dysfunctional bots who he loved like his children, and a group of wayward heroes that became his family. Even when they fought one another, even when they disagreed over what to watch on their random movie nights, this was his family and it was one he came to on his own. 

The rest of the day was filled with Shuri and him pouring over hours and hours of notes that he had collected with Bruce, notes that thankfully hadn’t been erased when Ultron had taken over his systems. They went over everything Tony knew about the element that his father had left behind in the diorama of the Stark Expo, they went through everything she knew about Vibranium as well as the raw version of it that he had brought with from space. 

“It’s the same and yet different at the same time,” she said as she broke it down and went over it piece by piece. “I don’t understand why though.” 

“Maybe the one in Wakanda changed its molecular makeup when it came into the Earth’s atmosphere,” he said thinking of what could have made the metal so different here on Earth then the one they had found in Knowhere.  

It took them several hours to figure things out, and even then, they weren’t sure because the gem they were trying to synthesize kept breaking down. They weren’t sure about what to do, even two geniuses needed help every once and a while. 

“You two have to eat,” Clint said as he slowly pulled Tony’s wheelchair away from the computer he was working on. 

“No,” he said trying to grab something to hold him to the desk. 

Clint grabbed onto Shuri and pulled her away from her own monitor. “Yes,” he said pulling the young girl in the same way he would pull his own daughter. “You two are eating with me and the kids.” 

“Is that even safe?” Tony asked knowing that Clint’s competence in the kitchen left something to be desired most days. 

“I can take care of people when I want to, plus I’m not the one cooking, Sharon and Pepper pulled a bunch of us left over into the kitchen and we pulled out the barbecue and started making things outside. We figured that the two of you need some fresh air.” 

“And there’s also the fact that there’s a lot of us,” Sharon said as she helped set up a nearby table while Everette Ross manned a grill that Tony had built for days when Thor was here. It was hard enough to cook to feed a super soldier, but feeding Thor was another thing entirely. “It’s easier if we’re all out here.” 

“How long were we down there,” Tony said as the sun hung over them, warming up the air around the large group of travelers. “I was sure we were only down there for a few hours.” 

“No Tony, you were down there since yesterday afternoon,” Pepper said giving him a look that he only knew about when she was angry at him for working too hard. “So, after you both eat, you’re going to bed, and neither one of you can say otherwise.” 

“But,” Shuri tried to say but Pepper looked over at her and the girl shut up quickly. 

“Good, now eat,” Pepper said before she walked away leaving the two of them in front of two plates of food. 

“She reminds me of my mother,” Shuri said smiling before a sad look crossed her face. 

Tony put his arm around her in a half hug, “Don’t worry kid, we’ll get them back.” 

“Who did you lose,” she asked him, because while he knows that she lost her family, she doesn’t really know who he lost considering he’s still surrounded by those he considers family. 

“There’s this kid, he’s about your age in fact, he’s really smart and a little hyper, and if you and him ever got together you’d be a terror to us all,” he said thinking about Peter and the whole incident with the Vulture, and how guilty Tony felt for taking the suit away from Peter when he so quickly put himself in danger. “He’s also Spiderman.”  

“Spiderman is a teenager?” she looked at him shocked. “But from what my brother told me he fought with you two years ago, he couldn’t have been older than fifteen.” 

“He was just a kid, but at the time I thought that it was just going to be a friendly conversation,” he actually didn’t want to be reminded of that time, he wanted to get over the whole thing already. “It didn’t happen that way, but now after all of this, it seems so stupid.” 

“I guess it does in some ways, would you go back and change anything that happened, would you?” 

“I don’t know if I could, I mean one of the people who was with us on Titan had the time stone, which I heard was the reason why everything went sideways over here, and I thought about how if we had just used it we could have changed the fight in our favor, but now there’s no way of knowing, and honestly I wouldn’t know if I would change anything if it ended up messing with the space time continuum.” 

She nodded at him, he knew she thought the same thing, but he also knew that like with any of the survivors around them, they all wished to change everything, to bring back those they lost, but they had to contend with the very real possibility that they might not have the option to go back to save them. 

“I know you want your brother back, your family, and all of those from Wakanda that perished, to come back, I want the same for those I’ve lost, but we’re all on uncharted territory here, so for now we just keep trying to revive Vision, we try our best so that when our little band of Thanos hunters come back we’ll be ready.” 

“What if they come back with bad news?” 

“We try and move on,” he said even though it hurt to say it out loud. “We get ready for the next threat, and you become the Queen of Wakanda and you help your people, because that’s what they would have wanted.” 

The thought of not being able to bring them back, the thought of failing, was something he didn’t want to deal with, but he also knew that he needed to help her regardless of his own fears. He needed to be strong for those who were with them, but he didn’t know just how long that strength will last. They sat there and ate the food given to them, Tony looking at all the people he picked up, all the people saved, wondering why did they survive, why did he live.  

_Don’t waste your life_ , Yinsen had told him all of those years ago, and it made him wonder had he wasted his life doing this, becoming Iron Man. He hadn’t, but if he couldn’t fix what had happened, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to survive the guilt. 

Pepper had wheeled him off to his room after he started nodding off in the chair, neither of them spoke as he climbed into the bed, exhausted. “I’m sorry,” he said as he got comfortable. “For everything that I’ve put you through.” 

“Don’t be,” she whispered. “After what happened, I realized that maybe you were meant for bigger things then what we had been,” sighing she sat down on the bed next to him. “I wasn’t comfortable with you being Iron Man, I wasn’t comfortable with you putting yourself in danger, I think back now, and I know that while I love you, we’re not the right ones for each other.” 

“Did you ever find your right one?” he asked just out of curiosity. 

“I may have, they may have been there all along all it took was getting over what I had with you,” she was smiling at him, a little blush to match her red hair. He wasn’t sure who it could be, since his real friends are a group of superheroes, and her and Happy, a few others in between. 

“Will you ever tell me who it is?” he yawned as he tried to smile, he was glad that she found happiness. 

“You already know who it is,” she smiled at him. “It’s Happy.” 

Tony couldn’t stop the surprise look on his face, even exhausted he was sure that he wouldn’t be able to hide that look. “Really?” 

“He saved my life in those weeks you were gone, we bonded, it’s new, and I like it.” 

“It’s a good thing that his main source of happiness is making sure you’re secure,” he said smiling, Happy had always supported their relationship, but maybe it was because he was afraid that if Pepper left he wouldn’t see her again, which was an interesting development in their friendship. “Am I going to have to give you both the shovel speech, because I’m too tired for that right now.” 

“You can give it to him when Steve gets back, that way we can give him the same speech,” she said before kissing him on his head. “Get some sleep Tony, you need it.” 

“Night Pep,” he said fully knowing that it was mid-afternoon. 

* * *

 

It had been a suicide mission, it had been a ray of hope in all of the darkness, the chance to get everything back to the way it should be. Except now Steve hated the outcome, he hated Thanos, and if he had had the chance he would have taken the titan’s head himself instead of letting Thor do it. The thought that the mad man had destroyed the stones after using them to get his paradise, after taking away half of all living beings in the universe. He wasn’t sure what it should mean, what it could mean other than the fact that they no longer had hope for their own future. Vision was still in the cradle as far as they knew, they hadn’t heard otherwise from Tony on the way back. Everyone in the ship was morose in one way or another, none of them talking, Thor had left the ship twice before returning, Nat stayed quiet, and Steve had excused himself to throw up. 

He knew what Tony was going to think about, the fact that he hadn’t been able to save the kid, and now that they couldn’t reverse it he also knew that they were all going to have to deal with the aftermath of what their separation had caused. Survivor’s guilt was something Steve was already suffering from, it had alleviated a little when Bucky had come back, but now he was certain, not just for himself but for all of them, that they were going to have to figure out how to move on from losing so much. He excused himself once the ship was in the air, hiding in the room that Tony had used as his workshop. He knew from the moment he stepped inside because Tony left little bits of himself there. 

“I’m sorry,” he said to no one in particular, mostly to himself, because he needed to get through this before they returned, he needed to be there for his teammates no matter what. There was no going back from this anymore, they were at the end of their rope and it hurt. 

A knock on the door, was all the warning he had before Natasha walked into the small space, “I’m sorry Steve,” she said to him. 

“No,” he shook his head, never turning to meet her eyes. “We knew the risks of going after him, we knew that it was likely that either he would die or we would.” 

“Where do we go from here?” 

“I honestly don’t know,” he said and they were both quiet for a moment, Steve seeing the jars of ashes on the ship, each marked with a name in Tony’s handwriting. “You can always tell where Tony’s been, he leaves a mark.” 

“Usually it’s a scorch mark,” she said and he could hear the smile even if he didn’t see it. 

Steve reached out for the jar that said Peter Parker, Tony’s protégée, the kid from Queens, the one he had fought against without hesitation thinking he was just another adult. “Do you think that Tony brought these with him to bury them? Or did he hope that they would come back?” 

“I don’t really know; I mean he was attached to the kid long before he brought him into the fight two years ago.” 

“He’s good with kids, they love him.” 

“That he is,” she sat down next to him looking out at the space Tony had once occupied. “Peter, in a way I think, reminded him of himself, that curious energy that Tony carries with him. I think if it were possible, Peter would have been Tony’s son, they’re both crazy smart and have the tendency to get themselves in trouble.” 

Steve didn’t say anything more, they had kept track of Tony in the time that the team had been separated, mostly just Steve keeping track, but he guessed that Natasha had as well. She used to tell him that they were a family, and even if they were in a rough place, they would find their way back to one another. Steve just wished they had done so faster, that he hadn’t been stubborn about it, that he would have just sent Tony a message before the first attack had happened. He was sure that Tony would have never opened it, but he just wanted to say something, anything. 

They went back to the front of the ship, no one saying a word otherwise, the rest of the trip was a quiet one for all of them. Even as they got off the ship greeted by those left behind, they couldn’t bring themselves to say anything more than the truth. Tony left soon after the words had come out of his mouth, Steve still holding onto the jar that said Peter’s name. Everyone walking off, Thor talking to the last of his people, Bruce next to him seeking comfort from people who he had become friends with. Natasha going to Clint, hugging the kids telling them that they would be alright, they would find a way. She was still holding onto a bit of hope, when Steve was ready to give up.  

Not knowing where to go, he went to Tony’s workshop to find the genius in there throwing things left and right. The bots in their charging stations not daring to come out in fear of something being thrown at them. He watched as Tony grabbed a wrench and flung it across the room before he fell to his knees, Steve rushed in and just held onto him while he started to cry, his shoulders slumped and defeated. It took a lot to take down Tony Stark, but even Steve knew that sometimes people had to break, even the Avengers were not immune to it no matter what people thought. 

“I don’t... I don’t... I...,” Tony tried to talk but the words weren’t coming out as his body shook, “Steve, I don’t think I can keep doing this.” 

“I know,” he said holding onto the man that just a few days ago he swore to keep close to his heart. “But we owe it to them to keep trying.” 

“We can’t,” Tony said his voice barely a whisper. “Vision hasn’t woken up, Shuri nearly broke the cradle because of it. Now this, I honestly don’t know what to do with myself.” 

“Maybe we can just go somewhere for a while, you and me,” Steve knew it was crazy but he also felt the same way Tony was feeling. 

“We can’t, everything out there right now is a reminder of what we’ve all lost, there’s nowhere to go, and the worst part is that they already hate us for not doing anything,” Tony said his back was tense against Steve chest. “We tried, we just weren’t ready, the accords all of that prevented us from doing anything, and they’re mad at us because of what was put in place by all of these countries, and it’s just stupid now. All of it is stupid, and I would go back and fix it if I could.” 

“But we can’t,” Steve said sighing as he ran his hands up and down Tony’s arms. “But we can go somewhere, get our energy back, and try to find a way to fix it all when we’re ready.” 

“Okay,” Tony said, but neither made an effort to move, both of them seeking comfort in each other’s arms just for that moment. Steve knew that a small trip, just to give them a reprieve, was all that was needed, and when they got back to work, they would find a way to help everyone recover. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you know from the movie, there's a time jump.... well there's a time jump here as well, and that's the next chapter!


	3. Five Years

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It takes five years, and four kids before they find themselves in a truly happy place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mostly this is what happened to Steve and Tony during the five year gap, there's mentions of other characters, but it's mostly healing and fluff. I want my boys to be happy.

They hadn’t meant to drive off and not come back, really, they hadn’t, but it’s how it had happened in the end. A week after the news about the stones, Tony took off for the woods, half out of his mind with grief over what had happened. Steve found him near the other side of the lake just staring out at the water, his eyes devoid of anything, the dark circles around his eyes had been more profound in the afternoon sun. The first thing that Steve had done after getting the genius back to the compound was pack a bag for each of them, and then explain to Natasha that they were going to take a little break. She understood, mostly because she had seen Tony breakdown as something far worse than everyone else’s. Shuri and the rest of the Wakandans had gone back home, all despondent, but Shuri was determined to be a great Queen for her people. With the relays intact, the Zandarians were taken home by Rocket and Nebula, who had helped them load all kinds of things that would help in their own recovery efforts. Nebula staying on Zandar for a little longer to get to know Duranna better, Rocket stayed because of Groot even though he wasn’t the Guardian’s Groot. 

Thor went off looking for some land for his people, settling in a sleepy Northeastern area, Bruce went with them, the small group sad but hopeful with their King there for them. Leaving Natasha behind with Tony and Steve, who were now on their way out as well. 

“I’ll run the Avengers,” she said looking at Tony’s vacant stare. “Just take care of him, Rhodes and I can run this place, plus we have new friends. We’ll be fine.” 

Steve knew that she wasn’t fine, but she still had Clint and his kids to keep her company, as well as the new team that had somehow formed, even though they had gone off towards other planets. So, Steve put them in Tony’s Audi and drove off, their first stop on their journey to find somewhere to settle ended up being a few hours north of the compound. Steve in his search to find a place for them had found an old abandoned property nestled deep in the woods, a huge lake next to the house. He had contacted the real estate company handling the sale and brought it dirt cheap, it had been abandoned for over ten years, mostly because people complained that it was too far away from any kind of civilization for them to live in it long term. People in the town south of the lake had called it a cursed location, but in reality, it just hadn’t had the right owner. 

Tony had been quiet the whole drive up, his eyes still vacant of anything remotely resembling the man Steve had once known. He knew the guilt was eating him up inside, it wasn’t any different then what Steve was feeling himself, but Steve needed to be the stronger one for once and not let everything fall onto Tony’s shoulders. When he pulled up to the house, he noticed just how run down it was, but it was something that they could work on together. 

Getting out of the car and walking over to where Tony was seated, Steve could only hope that this whole thing was a good idea, he opened the door and just kneeled down next to the man’s still form. 

“Hey Tony,” he said his voice quiet so that he wouldn’t startle him. “We’re here.” 

Steve waited to see if Tony would acknowledge him, he was surprised when Tony looked over at him and gave him a small smile. “Kidnapped me did you?” 

“Not entirely,” he smiled back. “I just figured that maybe we needed some time away, do something that didn’t involve being Captain America and Iron Man, to find our way after losing so much.” 

Tony nodded at him and looked out at the trees. “This place is different, how did you find it?” 

“I wasn’t really looking,” he said which was the truth, he had been looking for something more up to Tony’s standards and ended up finding the fixer upper instead. “I guess we just needed something to do for a little while.” 

“Well you’re right about the fixer upper, but it’ll do for now… as long as you don’t mind me putting my own touch to the place.” 

“I don’t mind at all Tony,” Steve said before pulling Tony out of the car and holding onto him. “Nope not at all.” 

It was a distraction if they ever needed one, the both of them needed something else to work towards outside of being the leaders of a group of superheroes. Tony poured all of his energy into upgrading the building, adding FRIDAY to the inside, while Steve worked on the outside, fixing the flooring, making sure that everything would be inhabitable. They called in plumbers, wearing disguises whenever workers were on the property, mainly because they just wanted to be like any other regular couple trying to find solace after so much devastation. No one questioned why the two of them were there, the people did their work and were paid above premium thanks to Tony. It took them nearly six months before the place was ready, their bedroom had been finished the first week, but everything else took time. They picked out every single thing with great detail, even making sure that they had extra bedrooms in case the others visited. No one ever came in that first year, leaving the two of them alone to work out their grief by working on the house, on the property, on whatever it was that Tony did in the garage. The basement was a gym for Steve, the workshop was in the garage, which was on the side of the house.  

It was strange that they had found a rhythm to their lives, going on dates, learning to talk everything out, even going to therapy. Steve started a small survivor’s group in the city, and would drive down every single Monday at speeds that Tony had said were outright illegal, even though he drove just as fast as Steve did. It had become their new normal, so of course after a year of being together Steve had decided on proposing to Tony. Life was too short for them to question anything in their lives, so Steve took Tony to Cambridge, to his alma mater, because Tony had heard about some projects that the students were doing as a part of the September foundation. One of the students, a young girl who was just starting, was helping Steve with his proposal, they had met the first time by accident, Steve had been trying to find a way to propose and ended up driving in the wrong direction ending up in Massachusetts instead of upstate New York, because he had been thinking too hard. It had given him the chance to get to know a place that had shaped Tony’s life for so long, but he was still wandering around a city he didn’t know and had run into a young teenage girl who just so happen to be one of the school’s youngest students. 

“You know, the day it happened we were visiting this school, I had just gotten the acceptance letter,” she said to him when they were sitting on a bench. Her name was Riri Williams, and she had been accepted into the school the day her family vanished in front of her eyes. Instead of staying home, she took the chance to go to the school, because she hoped that she would make her parents proud of her, but also, she wanted to have a crack at trying to find a way to bring them back. 

“We all lost someone, some more than most,” he told her reminded of the Battle of Wakanda, the look on Shuri’s face when she was told that her brother hadn’t made it. She had lost her mother who had gone to help her after one of Thanos’ children had broken in to get to Vision. He still sees the broken look in Tony’s eyes when he looks at the picture of him and Peter that sits in the kitchen of their still unfinished house. 

Steve bonded with her that day, both of them finding comfort in just talking about their families and their lives since the snap, he kept in contact with her and then called her when he had starting thinking about proposing to Tony. It was late Spring when they had made it to the now sleepy area, Tony had rushed around looking at all the projects with a gleeful stare, talking to each and every student individually about what they were working on. None of them asked why the Avengers hadn’t fixed what had happened, they must have known that somethings couldn’t be fixed, they were scientists after all.  

When he had gotten to Riri’s project he was astonished at what she had accomplished, Steve knew that the two would hit it off, considering how much they had in common, but it amazed him even more when she started talking about replusor technology and how Tony’s reactor could help the world around them. Eventually leading him towards where she had helped Steve set up the proposal, in a small classroom nearby, under the guise of asking for help with the rest of her project.  

If there was one thing about the proposal that Steve would never forget, it would be the look on Tony’s face when he walked into that room, it was full of flowers that Steve had picked, and lighting made by Riri which only illuminated everything so that it would have an ethereal glow. He had watched as Tony looked around the room, surprised at what was happening before his eyes had settled on Steve, kneeling down at the center.  

“I know that we’ve been through a lot over the years,” Steve said with a smile. “We almost never agree on a lot of things, but honestly its one of the greatest things about our relationship. You never looked at me as someone who needed to be pitied because of the situation I was in, you’ve always challenged me, you’ve helped me become a better person.” 

“If you’re proposing, the answer is yes,” Tony said to him with a huge smile. 

They had gotten married the next day, Riri as their only witness, after he told Tony about how they had met, and how they had bonded, Steve feeling like an overprotective Uncle. The judge had to sign an NDA considering who he was marrying, but it would become public record, that Captain America and Iron Man got married one year after the snap. As for Riri, they had asked her if she would like to live with them on the months she wasn’t in school. Steve didn’t want her to be alone, and she said yes, happy that she could learn from Tony, they brought her back to the lake house, they became her foster parents weeks later after she had told Tony about what had happened to her parents. Because for Tony, who had lost Peter, he didn’t want her to be alone in the world, he didn’t want anyone to be alone. That was when their little family started to grow, and Steve wouldn’t have traded any of it for the world. 

* * *

 

Tony didn’t remember much from the first few months after the team had returned from wherever it was that Thanos had run off to. He doesn’t remember the drive to the lake house, only the moment that Steve had kneeled down next to him and talked to him. He worked on the house with Steve, but there had been days when he would find himself just sitting there doing nothing because he remembered how Peter would send him message after message about what he had been doing around Queens as Spiderman. Steve constantly pulling him out of his head whenever he got too deep into the memories. 

Steve didn’t pressure him to go back to the Avengers facility, he didn’t pressure Tony to be Iron Man, all Steve did was work through his own pain and his own guilt, while also making sure that Tony was alright after a panic attack or on days where Tony was too far into his own head that he needed to get out. So, as the first year went on and they got closer, they had also found a way to work together on their little project, not that fixing a house was a little project, not with Tony involved. They did other things, Tony learned to cook while Steve learned to bake, everything was fifty/fifty, they talked and watched movies, but most of all they learned to move forward together.  

The first time Tony truly felt like they had moved forward in their relationship, farther than he would have thought, was when Steve took him on a picnic and for the first time look like he had come to terms with what had happened. Steve talked to him about everything that he had been doing, how he had accidentally drove all the way to Massachusetts because he hadn’t been paying too much attention. 

“I guess that I had some kind of epiphany that day,” Steve told him with a small smile on his face. “We may never move on from what happened, but I’m almost certain that they would be angry with us if we didn’t at least try.” 

Hearing those words from Steve, who had stuck to his man out of time shtick for so long, say that he wanted to try to move forward was a lot for Tony to take in. But he also took them to heart, working with Stark Industries and Pepper, to help with recovery, working on projects while in the garage of the lake house. He wanted to try, just like Steve was trying, but he still couldn’t bring himself to go to NAF and see everyone, that took a lot more time then he was ready for. He still talked to them, on video calls mostly, Rhodey came over to check on him a lot before going on a mission. But mostly, they left him to work on his guilt through the one thing he knew best, and that was building. 

Everything changed after they got married, after they brought Riri into their lives, somehow, they both had a purpose, they had someone who depended on them. They were a family, extended from their Avengers family, Clint’s kids came over sometimes, while Clint was off doing god knows what, making Steve and Tony unofficial babysitters.  

When Tony started traveling for work again, never too far because he needed to get back to the lake house, it was home, and sometimes being too far made him panic because he was afraid Steve would vanish, so the business trips were confined to the tri-state area. It was on one of these trips, to Jersey of all places, where Tony found himself helping a young girl who was crying on the side of the road near a pile of dead flowers. Someone else who had lost everything because they hadn’t done enough. Though she told him constantly that it wasn’t his fault, the first person outside of the Avengers to do so, he noticed that she looked a little malnourished.  

“I’ve been trying to survive for a while,” she had told him. Of course, Tony had an instinct to help, it’s one of the reasons why he was constantly upgrading Peter’s armor even though he wasn’t there anymore, or upgrading things for the Avengers, he needed the hope that they would find a way to help after all of the devastation.  

“If you don’t mind accompanying me, we can go over to Burger King and eat some food,” he said smiling at her. “My treat.” 

Tony had been sure that he was the first to have offered her anything like that, a lot of people were struggling but some more than others. Kids, teenagers mostly, were suffering from losing their families, some were too old to be put into foster care so they stayed in their family homes and tried to make ends meet, often failing. Tony watched her as she ate through four burgers, only stopping to talk about superheroes, or how hard school was, or even how she had lost her family. She became more animated as she went and it reminded him of Peter in a way, he wondered how she would be with Riri, or even Shuri who need more friends her age. 

That was the day that Tony brought a tired Kamala Khan back to the lake house, and fed her enough of Steve’s cookies that she passed out on the table smiling. Even after eating so many burgers she had happily ate more, almost like she was afraid that she wouldn’t eat again afterwards. When she was comfortable being there with them, she realized that she had the chance for a home once again, and that made Tony very proud. 

“You know,” Steve said to him as they got ready for bed that night. “I never thought that I would be a father, I thought I had given that up a long time ago, especially when I started coming to terms with being 70 years in the future, but we’re not too bad at this.” 

“Trust me, I always thought I would have been a horrible father, until I became Iron Man, the thought that maybe one day I could have a kid was there, I had thought it would have been with Pepper, but this,” he said looking at Steve with all of his heart. “what we’re doing with them, how we are together, I couldn’t have asked for anything better.” 

“So,” Steve put his arms around him, while kissing him on his temple. “How many kids do you think that we’re going to end up with?” 

“I never thought that far, but I wouldn’t mind another one,” he turned his head and kissed Steve on the lips. “I wouldn’t mind having our own little family here, plus I’m sure that the Avengers are going to start popping in more often, and Clint’s going to want to live nearby.” 

The mention of Clint made Steve tense and Tony knew it was because Clint out of all of them was having an even harder time moving forward. “I wish there was more we could do for him,” Steve said as he rested his head against Tony’s. “It’s not fair that we can have all of this and he’s still struggling.” 

“I know Steve, but he needs to grieve, we’ll help him, hell he could live in the guest house with the kids if it makes him feel better... well when the guest house is finished.” 

“It’ll be done by the end of the summer, I promise, and maybe the girls would like having Lila, Cooper and Nate around, more kids for them to hang around with.” 

“Maybe that’s just what we all really need,” Tony hadn’t realized that healing themselves involved becoming a real family. “We all need a family, though it’ll be hard some days, I still don’t think I’m completely ready to be Iron Man again.” 

“I’m not ready to be Captain America either, but I’m okay with us just being Steve and Tony for now.” 

They did just that, they were just going to focus on themselves and keeping their little family safe. Riri and Kamala became fast friends, which was something that they both needed, someone to be there for them. With Steve and Tony as their foster dads, life at the lake house had become strangely fascinating for the four of them. Their family growing, everyone had lost someone close to them, they were all finding their way to move forward. Tony smiled when he would hear the girls laughing in their room, it felt nice to give someone hope again, to give them the chance to be happy again. 

So, it wasn’t a surprise that the one day that Tony had gone with Steve to one of his meetings, that the two of them would end up coming back with another kid. Though finding him was something that was evitable in so many ways. He was the youngest kid in Steve’s therapy group, but for the whole meeting he had stayed quiet, until Steve started talking about being from Brooklyn and what it felt like to see how much it had changed since his deep freeze. 

The kid’s name, Miles Morales, and he hit it off with Steve, both of them from Brooklyn, both of them had a love for art, and honestly both of them were troublemakers, who had started a war against the girls, all the while Tony watched and made sure that they didn’t hurt themselves too badly. Miles, was like Peter in many ways, including the powers, which threw Tony for a loop, because how could there be two kids with the same powers in such a short amount of time, and how had these infected spiders gotten out. Tony just filed it away as another coincidence, and just watched the kids as they got along with one another. 

“You’re good with them,” Steve had told him, after the war had ended in all five of them covered in paint and DUM-E spraying them with the fire extinguisher. “You gave them all a family, you became my family.” 

“I never knew that I would end up having a home for lost wayward kids, but they’re ours now and forever,” Tony smiled feeling like he was finally moving forward.  

Riri, shared Tony’s love for technology and had secretly, well she thought it had been a secret, began to build Iron Heart. It was her own armor and while Tony was scared of her using it, he wasn’t going to stop her from creating it, but he was going to make sure that it was safe for her to use. Kamala, had been a surprise, she had developed powers and no one understood why it had happened, neither did she, but they worked on making sure that she was alright, Bruce stopped by to check on them and collected samples from her and Miles to make sure that nothing was going to be detrimental to their futures. So, since Riri had her armor, Tony worked on stuff for Miles and Kamala as well, because Tony wanted them all to be safe. Miles and Steve giving him designs for Miles’ suit, and then having Miles paint on the material before. Tony put KAREN into the suit, so that she would have someone to talk to. He wanted someone to have Peter’s legacy with them, and she was a part of Peter as much as FRIDAY and JARVIS had been a part of his. 

Somehow without him realizing, he almost always attracted people with special powers, or potential beyond anything he could imagine, and it scared him. Not because he was always surrounded by people with special skills, but because the world around him was evolving to match the threats that they would possibly face in the future. So, on days when he thought too much about everything, mostly on days when Steve was at his group meetings with Miles, Kamala joining them on weekdays when Riri was at MIT, Tony found himself headed over to one of the orphanages that had cropped up after the decimation. He knew that if he could help those kids too, he could also heal himself a little more. He didn’t have to think too hard with the kids, he could have fun, and do silly things for a few hours.  

There was one orphanage near the tip of Manhattan that he hadn’t visited until one rainy September afternoon, he had been on his way home when he saw it, the building falling apart on the outside, but it was warm on the inside. Kids running around, laughing, playing, it felt like the lake house when all of the kids were there, Tony automatically wanted to offer his services. He ended up sitting in a room with a fussy toddler, the people working there were having a hard time with her. 

“Sorry Mr. Stark,” the woman said as the little girl cried in a corner, she was just over a year old, but she looked sad to be there. “She’s usually quiet but lately she’s been a little sick, I’m at my wits end.” 

“It’s okay,” he said waving the woman off before walking over to the little girl and sitting with her, her crying became hiccups before she settled into his lap. 

“She’s never done that before, most of the time we can’t hold her for long.” 

“Do you know why? Or do you think that she’s just particular about the people she’s with?” 

“We don’t know, she’s usually a quiet child, until she gets sick, lately she’s gotten a few colds, but she never got to the point where she wouldn’t let anyone near her, but she seems to like you,” she told him as the little girl settled into his arms. 

“What’s her name?” 

“Morgan, that’s the name that was on her bracelet when she was found, she’s lucky to be alive after what had happened to her parents.” 

He knew what she meant, and from the size and age of little Morgan, it meant that she had been born on the day of the devastation, and it hurt to think of it that way. The nurse told him his worse fears, the little girl had been born on a cab on the way to the hospital, when the driver, and her parents were lost. The bag had said the parents last name but no first name, so the hospital called her little girl Morgan. Tony stayed with her the rest of the day, before taking her to a doctor to find out that she had an ear infection and that’s why she was crying so much. When he went back to the building he asked if he could take her with him, and the caretaker only nodded, noting that she was comfortable with him. 

“As long as there’s someone to love and care for her, I won’t deny it to her, or any of these kids,” she said, they had all lost something, so even one kid gaining a family was something that they cherished. “I’ll get the paperwork.” 

Tony called Steve the moment he had gotten the papers in front of him, with two excited teenagers in tow, the Stark family had been complete. The house was big enough for all of them, after a year of work, Clint and family were going to move in the next week as well. Tony knew that if Natasha, or any of the other Avengers were going to show up he would find a way to build them homes as well. This was the best way for them to rebuild their lives, but finding each other and becoming a family. 

Steve usually took morning duty on the weekdays, making breakfast after his run, waking the kids up for school, and driving them there before going to work on another project, usually painting or heading over to NAF to talk to Natasha about their progress, before heading back and picking the kids up on his way home. Tony was on night duty, cooking dinner, helping with homework, as well as Morgan duty, who was a happy toddler now that she had people around her to care for her. He knew that the orphanage tried their best, but with so many kids it was a lot harder than anyone would imagine. 

Steve’s paintings went up for auction once a year for the next four years, they funded recovery projects, but mostly they funded orphanages like the one Morgan had come from. The reason was that Morgan was the one that had finally pulled Tony away from his guilt over the decimation, and it was something that he was grateful for every day. To the kids, Steve was Pops who helped them with training if they asked, self-defense, or in Miles’ case, just being an ear for art projects that he was interested in. Tony was Dad, he cooked everyone’s favorite meals, made them gagets, and was homework monitor.  

“My kids are not going to fall behind in school,” he would say as he gave them rewards for each good report card.  

If anything, Steve was in awe with how good Tony was with the kids, always encouraging them, both academically, and artistically. Tony who had told Steve early on in their relationship that he was afraid that he was going to be a terrible father, that he didn’t know why he had gone ahead and adopted four kids. But Steve told him, every day since Morgan came home with them, that if it wasn’t for Tony those kids wouldn’t have made it as far as they had in the last couple of years. 

Clint’s kids lived on the land, Clint oftentimes taking missions to work off his anger, leaving the kids with Steve and Tony, which they were okay with. Their weekends filled with sleepovers, and friends stopping by. Shuri joining them, which Steve knew was the best thing for her, because she needed moments where the weight of an entire country was not riding on her shoulders. Nebula oftentimes came with Duranna who saw Tony as an Uncle who gave her interesting things, Nebula always looked at peace when she was around Tony and the kids, like she had found her place after everything. 

Avengers were the norm for popping up left and right, Kamala attaching herself to Carol who was almost always with Rhodey, and Steve thought it was interesting but let them be. Kamala proudly proclaiming herself as Ms. Marvel, after Tony had left the kids with Carol and Rhodey so that they would have an anniversary weekend.  

So, Tony declared them Kamala’s godparents, “If anything happens to her, I’m blaming them,” he said to Steve that night. After Carol had shown Kamala a particularly dangerous maneuver, that had Tony practically pulling out his own hair.  

Steve only smiled and said, “Okay Tony,” before taking his husband to bed. 

Miles gained a godmother, in May Parker, who had come over several times after losing Peter, sharing her grief with Tony. She saw Miles’ heart, and how he wanted to help, in him she saw some parts of Peter, but she embraced him as his own person, often working with Miles and Steve on gallery openings, or a mural that she wanted them to paint somewhere in the city.  

Riri’s godmother, was Natasha, who taught her combat skills that she could use as self-defense. Natasha knew that Riri was away a lot for school, and she didn’t want anything to happen to the girl that had brought Steve and Tony closer together. Steve wondered if Riri’s godfather would have been Bucky if he had survived. He knew more than anything that Natasha was struggling to keep the Avengers together, trying to find a way to help everyone to the point where it was consuming her. 

“I just wish that we had the time to fix what Hydra had done to him, for him to remember me, for none of this to have happened, we all lost so much but I gained a family when we became the Avengers,” she told him and while he knew that she was trying, Riri had given her something more to hope for. 

Morgan’s godparents, ended up being Pepper and Happy, who had gotten married a year after Steve and Tony had, they dotted on the little girl as much as they could. When Pepper wasn’t off running the company or doing a million charity functions, or Happy wasn’t freaking out over people not having their badges, the two spent time at the lake house with them. Pepper, or Aunnie Pepa and Unca Hape, as Morgan would call her, often used the time to wind down, the little girl telling her all kinds of stories about her siblings.  

The lake house had somehow turned into a place where people would come and go, Thor came with Bruce and Valkyrie, most of the time when Nebula was there, the four of them having a weird bond that Tony didn’t want to speculate about, but it worked. Each one of them housed a mountain of issues, either from family or the tragedy of their lives, but they were close. Nebula would bring them things that she found while traveling with Rocket, who because of Thor was Rabbit to Morgan. It was their own weird little family, one that Steve never thought he would have, even with the missing people in their lives, he knew that he had hope for their future. 

“They’re our kids,” Steve said smiling as the family played around the yard, Kamala and Miles both getting ready for college. “You’ve done good with them.” 

“Now they’re leaving me,” Tony said his voice sad, it had been nearly five years since the snap, five years of them all growing and getting to know each other.  

“They’ll come home,” Steve said hugging his husband. “They always do, plus I taught them to drive.” 

“Yeah like maniacs,” Tony said looking at him. “I had to put FRIDAY in their cars so that she could slow them down, do you know how hard it was to watch them drive, nearly gave me a heart attack.” 

“They’ll be fine, and you’ll be fine as long as you don’t fake any more heart attacks, plus they can come home on weekends, and we still have Morgan here.” 

“My little Morguna,” Tony picked up the little girl and held her closer to them as they watched Miles and Kamala drive away to school. “Yeah they’ll be back.” 

It was the first time, since they brought Riri home, that they were alone, just the two of them and Morgan. Clint had taken the kids to the old farm house, Cooper wanted to get somethings before he himself went off to college, but Steve had known that it was because he wanted some closure as well. They had survived, and while the Barton kids had lost their mother, they were still desperately trying to keep their father. The three of them had devised a plan to get their dad to let go of the past before he got himself killed, because out of all of them, Clint was the only one who had trouble letting go. It scared the kids, and it scared Tony, Steve tried his best to keep everyone together but somedays it was a little hard when one of them wouldn’t let go of what they had lost. 

“So, what now?” Tony asked him as he climbed up the stairs to the house. 

“We bake cookies and send it to them I guess,” Steve said smiling at his husband. 

“They’ve been gone less than five minutes and now you bring up cookies,” Tony held Morgan close, shrugging his shoulders. “Yeah sure why not. Morguna what kind of cookies do you want to make with your dad and your pops?” 

“Chocolate,” she said her hand in her mouth, she still hadn’t outgrown sticking her fingers in her mouth, but they weren’t going to stop her. “Iron Man.”  

"Chocolate Iron Man... interesting choice.” 

“She’s been sneaking into the garage, last week I caught her grabbing one of your prototypes,” Steve said as they walked into the kitchen. “Maybe we should lock the workshop when we’re sleeping.” 

“Yeah I know, I don’t want her activating something, but FRIDAY keeps the protocols to stop her from activating the suits by accident,” Tony said as he put Morgan in her chair at the table as Steve went over to the fridge to get the ingredients.  

“Have you told Pepper about the suit?” 

“No, maybe I will one day but right now, I guess it’s just another project,” Tony was always trying to protect them, even when he decided on not being Iron Man. He made suits for the kids, even installing KAREN into them so that they kids were all connected to one another even when they were miles apart. FRIDAY, was connected to Steve’s phone and his car, as well as the Avengers Facility and wherever it was that Thor, Bruce and Valkyrie were. He even upgraded it on the Benatar, so that Rocket could talk to Natasha, and Nebula could talk with them all.  

“You’ll get it done,” Steve said before taking out the cookie cutters of the Avengers and all the bowls. “Now let's make some cookies.” 

Morgan squealed out a Yay from her seat as they settled into putting the ingredients together, Steve knew that this was what home felt like, warmth and the people he loved. So of course, the moment that they were at their happiest was when everything changed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe one day I'll get deeper into the relationships between the kids, and their adoptive dads. Until that time comes I hope you enjoyed this, because they're going to play a bigger role further into the story.


	4. A Vision’s Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As everything moves into place, Steve and Tony don't know where to move from here

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you know just how hard it was to put this together, because there’s so many more people alive now, so many people to move on the chess board, and thank you Thor for the people who are transcribing the movie script onto Transcript Wiki (https://transcripts.fandom.com/wiki/Avengers:_Endgame), because that helped sooo much you have no idea.  
> I actually rewrote a good chunk of the movie into this, why? Because I'm mad with power, plus it was an interesting thing to do, to make it a real Steve/Tony event.  
> This chapter is super long because of the rewrite, but I love my little family, and you will have to pry them from my cold dead hands.

The city seemed as though the world stopped moving forward, it was a dreary scene to behold every time that Steve drove towards his weekly group meeting. The fact that a city that always seemed so alive with people, even in the darkest of times, now seemed as though it stopped moving at all. Whenever he drove in with Tony, he always made sure to keep the conversation going, to keep Tony especially from looking out at what the city looked like. For them, home was an isolated place, where only a few came near, there was nowhere around that would remind them of their one failure, it was a place for them to be able to move on from what had happened.  

Yet, whenever Steve drove into the city without Tony, he couldn’t help but feel the weight of the guilt that crushed him from the inside. The feeling of what if they had done this differently, what if Steve had called first instead of waiting for Tony to do so, what if he had told Tony the truth before everything got out of hand. He knew that Tony had the same thoughts, the nightmares he sometimes had were a testament to that fact. They talked about it, Tony sometimes came to meetings with Steve and Miles, but in the end the best healing that his husband has done is in taking care of the kids. Steve would have never seen himself as a family man, he told Tony that that life was long gone, but in the end, Tony was the one that had given him hope, hope for something bigger, hope for more, and he loved him all the more for it. 

The café that the meetings were held in had been abandoned long ago, no one used the machines, but Steve made sure to upkeep the place for them. That poster on the wall was the only reminder of the fact that they had to keep moving forward.  

 _WHERE DO WE GO, NOW THAT THEY'RE GONE?_  

It was a reminder that Steve still had work to do, even when he was sure that he would never be able to hold onto that shield again. The weight of what it represents hurts him more than anything, the fact that he had hurt the man he loved with it made it even worse. He sometimes wondered if he were fit to be a hero after everything that had happened, but it wasn’t a concern that he voiced out loud to anyone. But Tony understood, Tony who had gone through the worse of his depression with Steve anchoring him had told him that he was worthy of the shield, that he should forgive himself because Tony had forgiven him. So that one of the biggest reasons why he ran the meetings, he was learning to forgive himself for what had happened. 

The chairs were already set up when he walked into the room, Miles was in the corner setting up the drinks table, usually filled with whatever coffee beans that Tony had given them at the beginning of the month.  

“Heya Pops,” Miles said smiling from the table. “I hope the coffee came out right cause I’m never sure if I put enough in the pot.” 

Steve hugged Miles smiling as he watched the kid count the cups on the table, “It should be fine, the coffee at home is always stronger than it should be, but that’s cause your dad likes it that way.” 

“Alright,” he said smiling. “Cool, cool, cool.” 

“How’s the semester going so far? Anything new you need to tell me? Like how I got an alert on my phone the other day about some spider guy swinging around midtown.” 

Miles stopped what he was doing his body stiffening in front of Steve, “Yeah... well... um.” 

“You gave your parents a heart attack, and Tony was the one who made you that suit,” Steve said wondering how his own kids didn’t understand that their parents knew everything. “We let you kids have KAREN as a defense, we don’t interfere with her, but it would be nice if you guys would warn us a little when you actually decide to use your powers.” 

“Am I in trouble?” 

“No, I’m not going to ground you especially since you’re in college, but you have to come home this weekend, Riri is going to be there, and hopefully Kamala will be there too, I’m going to set some ground rules with you three about being heroes, because I saw how your dad was with Peter, and after what happened I don’t what to think about how he would react if anything happened to you three.” 

“Okay Pops, I hear you,” Miles said his shoulders slumped and Steve knew that it was more about getting caught over actually using his powers. Both he and Tony had encouraged the kids to learn more about their abilities to test their limits, but only within a controlled environment. 

“We just want you all to be safe about this,” and it was the most truthful thing that Steve could say to his own kids. 

“Yeah I know, and you’re right, plus I wanted to tell dad about how the web shooters were working, I may have to have them adjusted a little.” 

Steve knew that while those kids weren’t biologically his, that he wouldn’t trade them for the world, superheroing ran in the family, it was bound to happen that the kids would follow suit, especially with two of them sporting actual powers, and a genius in their midst. Before he could say anything else, because the one thing that the kids had agreed to were secret identities if they ever used their powers, the small group that joined them started to come in. They were there to tell their stories, to talk about their lives, to find some way to move forward. 

The meeting, as any other that they’ve had since Steve started them, went the same, they drank coffee, and talked with friends at first, sometimes a new person showed up, and they got to know them. It was the one time during most of their week where they were allowed to grieve for the life they once had, the families they lost, the friends that they would never see again. Miles talked about his biological parents, telling the group about how his adoptive family has helped him, no one knew that Steve was one of his adoptive parents, Tony hadn’t wanted the kids to become targets because of their parents, so other than the papers that declared them a family no one actually knew that they were a family. Outside of the Avengers and their friends, the world only knew that Tony Stark had married Steve Rogers, they didn’t know that the couple had four kids, the only one that had been adopted publicly in anyway had been Morgan but even with her, they had made sure to keep everything quiet. 

The last person to speak to the group was a young Latin woman, she had only started coming to the meetings a few months before, but Steve knew that she wanted to say somethings, and while she had only shared the basics of her life at first, she had finally opened up. 

“So, I, uh...” she started, it was always hard when they had to share something that was truly intimate. “I went on a date the other day. First time, you know? Sit there, dinner... I didn't know what to talk about.” 

If there was one thing that Steve knew about America, was that she’s a year younger than Miles, and he knew that she wasn’t inclined to be around others very often, but she had befriended Miles when he had gone to NYU, and Miles tries to bring her out of her shell every so often. Steve liked that Miles was making friends, even more so that he was trying to help those friends in the same way that his pops and his dad had helped him. 

“What did you talk about?” he asked to move the conversation along and to give her a chance to speak a little more. 

“Same stuff I’ve talked with my friends about, you know how things have changed, and... and going to school and working at the same time,” she said looking around to the room. They all had shared their lives with one another during their sessions, but this was more than she had ever shared with them. “How much we miss going out to games here in the city. Then everything got quiet. She cried as they were serving the salads.” 

“How about you?” Miles asked so that she would feel more comfortable sharing more with them. 

“I cried right before we got dessert, but she asked to see me again, so we’re going out tomorrow,” America said speaking mostly to Miles as if they were just hanging out and talking but, for Steve it felt nice to get to know his son’s friends. 

“That’s great,” Steve told her, genuinely happy that she could try something new, he was happier that she felt comfortable enough to share with them. “You did the hardest part. You took the jump, you didn’t know where you were going to come down,” he noticed that one of the others in their group was tearing up, it was normal for someone to cry during one of these sessions, but they were all trying their best. “And that’s it. That's those little brave baby steps you gotta take, to try and become whole again. To try and find purpose.” 

The room was quiet as they all took in what he was saying to them, he tried to remember all of the things that Sam used to tell him, about recovery after war, about getting over your fears, things that he tried to take in even when it seemed like everything was falling apart. He started this group because he remembered Sam’s work with the VA, he wanted to honor his friend’s legacy by doing something that would make him proud, because there were days when Steve felt guilty for dragging him into the whole Avengers things. 

“I went in the ice in ‘45 right after I met the woman, I thought was the love of my life. Woke up 70 years later. It took a long time for me to move on from that from losing everything that I knew,” Steve couldn’t help but look at Miles, his son, the boy who had grown up in front of him and made both of his parents proud. “I found love again, I found a family again, even after all of this. You got to move on. Got to move on. The world is in our hands. It’s left to us guys, and we have to do something with it. Otherwise... Thanos should have killed us all.” 

The words hung in the air, a reminder of what he couldn’t stop but he also knew that this group of people, if they tried hard enough, they would help move the world forward. They just had to, because Steve couldn’t risk failing his family again. 

“Let’s end this here for today,” he said to the group. “Thank you for sharing today, and I hope to see you all again next month.” 

Everyone got up, some went for coffee, others to talk to one another, Miles was in the center of the room animatedly talking to America, Steve knew that it was because he was proud of his friend for sharing something for once.  

“You know,” Steve said as he walked over. “If you want you can invite your date to one of these meetings, it might help you get to know her better, or even give you both people to talk with that you’re comfortable around.” 

He watched as Miles stiffened next to him, and Steve knew that his son was hiding something, he gave him a knowing look before hearing America sigh next to him. 

“You know you’re terrible at keeping secrets,” she said to Miles. “I mean I already know that Steve is your dad, no kid in those dorms have a picture with Iron Man and Captain America, it’s impossible especially since they’ve been out of the spotlight for five years now.” 

“Yeah well don’t blab about it America, I don’t want the whole world to know,” Miles said, and Steve knew that he could embarrass his son but instead he looked over at America and smiled. 

“We kept it quiet for a reason, and it would be nice if you could too,” he said to her and she nodded back at him. 

“Anyway,” she said looking between Miles and Steve. “You already know her... I mean... well Miles was the one who introduced us, but for now we want to keep it quiet, because it’s new.” 

“No problem, when you’re both ready, it would be good to know who it is,” he said smiling. It was rare to get the girl to open up, she was smart and Steve liked that Miles had found a friend that he was comfortable with. “I’ll see you both later, I’m going to stop by and see Nat before I go home.” 

“Okay, tell dad I said hi, and that I’ll be home this weekend,” Miles said with a smile before dragging America away. Steve knew that Miles usually spent his free time tagging the city, every once and a while working on a mural somewhere, and while Steve didn’t encourage defacement of property, he loved seeing what his son left behind for him. 

* * *

 

Tony wasn’t normally alone at the lake house, there was always someone around, but it was eerily quiet as he made lunch for him and Morgan. He knew exactly where Morgan was, in her little fort that Riri and Kamala had helped her build before they had left for the semester. The fort was visible from the window, so he wouldn’t lose sight of her, but it was strangely quiet which meant that the little girl was up to something. He had learned long ago that his kids were evil conspirators, he loved them, but when the four of them were together they plotted things and scared the hell out of him on more than one occasion. 

Yet, he missed the times when the house was filled with them all, even with just him, Steve and Morgan, there were times when it felt too empty. He knew that Riri was on her way home for the weekend, and she would probably pick up her sister on the way home as well. Steve was with Miles at their monthly group therapy session, and he would probably convince their son to come home as well. It made him happy that they would be there all together for the weekend.  

Sighing to himself, he put the finishing touches to their lunch and made his way out to the front yard, “Chow time!” he called out but Morgan didn’t answer. “Morgoona,” he said hearing the soft giggle of his little girl. “Morgan H. Stark, come out come out wherever you are.” 

When the little girl popped out she put her hand up, because of course Steve had decided to show their little rugrat videos of her dads as heroes and like their other three kids, Morgan also wanted to be a hero as well. So she had a light on her hand, like it was his replusor gloves and pointed it up at him.  

“Want some lunch?” he said to her but she snuck back into her little fort and came out wearing one of the armors that he had been building in his garage, this one for Pepper, since he had finished a prototype armored car for Happy. 

“Define lunch or be disintegrated,” she said to him, and he knew that she spent way too much time with her sisters. 

“It’s just a grilled cheese sandwich Morgan,” he said to her while she still had her hand up, holding him hostage. 

“Okay,” she said and he could hear the glee in her voice. 

“You should not be wearing that, okay? This is part of a special gift for your Aunt Pepper and Uncle Happy,” he told her as he pulled the helmet off and saw the gleeful smile of his little girl. “There you go. Are you thinking about lunch? Want a handful of crickets with your sandwich?” 

“No,” she said giggling at him. 

“That’s what you want,” he joked while looking at the helmet. “How did you find this?” 

“Garage,” she was pointing in the direction of his workshop with a small smile. 

“Really? Were you looking for it?” 

“No, I found it though.” 

“You like going to the garage, huh?” he couldn’t help but smile, his kids were all smart as hell and he loved that when it came to all of them. “Well, so does daddy, and your big sister Riri too. It’s fine actually, Auntie Pepper never wears anything I make for her anyway.” 

He looked at the helmet, knowing that he made it, the car, Steve’s suits, the suits for all the kids, everything was made out of a need inside of him to keep everyone he cared about safe. He upgraded all the armors constantly, he made weapons for Natasha, a new arm for Nebula, clothes for the Hulk, pretty much anything he could think of. There were still threats out there, things that could come after them, people hell bent on revenge after the decimation. It was the fear of something happening that caused him to create things for everyone he cared about, even when he himself feared going back to being Iron Man. 

Too deep in his thoughts Morgan touched his face and gave him her little sideways smile, Steve said that she learned it from him, but he was never really sure about anything. Morgan had developed little quirks, not just from him, but from Steve, and to Tony’s dismay, she had that puppy eyed look that Steve had patented over the years to get Tony to do anything and everything that they wanted him to do. It was how they had convinced him to build things for them, toys for Morgan, a new art studio for Steve, they even used their powers of evil for things for their other three kids. But he loved them all the same, even more as they all became closer as a family. 

“Come on Morgoona, let’s go eat and then we’ll make something together,” Tony said and his little angel girl squealed at him. She knew that she had him wrapped around her little finger, there was no denying how much he loved her for how happy she always was, even as he remembered just how sad she had been as a toddler when he had first met her.  

Later on, after they had blown up the TV and DUM-E had used the extinguisher on them, Tony knew that he was going to be in trouble with Steve. The TV blowing up was an accident, and there was a spare one in the family room anyway, but Steve had told him to never upgrade anything in the house without him knowing first. Especially after the microwave copped an attitude with him and made his lunch explode. 

“DUM-E,” Morgan squealed as she ran after the bot, while covered in foam.  

Tony resigned himself to his fate and picked up his foam-covered daughter, “DUM-E, U, clean this up please,” he said as Morgan laughed from his shoulder as they walked away. “And you missy, you need a bath.” 

“Can I use the bubble gum bubble bath please,” she said as she clung to him. 

“Sure, why not,” he said as they made it to the second-floor bathroom. “Now stand here while I get your bath ready, and please don’t tell your pops about what happened.” 

“Okay daddy, I won’t tell pops,” she said but he knew that the moment Steve asked her about her day she was going to blab about their little misadventure. He was so screwed. 

It took half an hour before they were both cleaned up, Tony showering after Morgan finished her bath, he tried to figure out how to get a new television into the house before Steve got back, but it was impossible to accomplish and he knew it. They didn’t sell that model anymore, and Tony had promised Steve that he wouldn’t buy anything unnecessary so he was out of luck on that one. 

“Dad,” someone called from downstairs and Tony felt himself stiffen, because if there was one person who couldn’t really lie to anyone it was Riri, she had a tell that only Steve could see. 

He could do this, he could keep Riri from saying anything, and then he heard Kamala say, “What happened to the TV?” 

Tony groaned as Morgan ran out of the room screaming for her sisters dressed in only her little robe with her hoodie on, Tony just sat in his and Steve’s room and contemplated all of the ways he could hide and not be found. Instead he got dressed and went to greet his girls, because he was going to have to face the music on this when Steve got home. 

“Daddy and I were in the garage, and we wanted to make the TV better, but something happened and then DUM-E sprayed us,” Morgan was telling them when he got downstairs. Both girls looked up at him and were trying their damnedest not to laugh, they failed horribly. 

“Pops is going to kill you,” Riri said once she stopped laughing. “There was that rule, especially after that incident with the microwave, and you broke it.” 

“Well he should know better than to leave me alone for long periods of time,” he said as he pulled the three of them into a hug. “But now I have you to blame it on.” 

“Nope... nope.... nuh uh,” Kamala said throwing her hands up. “I’m not getting another lecture for you, pops and his I’m disappointed in you face, which should be illegal in this house, was enough to keep me from taking the blame on anything, or doing anything.” 

“Fine, I’ll tell him,” he said admitting defeat. “But now you have to help me clean up the mess in the garage, because I’m pretty sure DUM-E and U made it worse while we were showing.” 

The garage was actually cleaner than he would have imagined, maybe because FRIDAY had been directing the bots while Tony cleaned up Morgan, so all that they really had to do was gather up the TV, or at least what was left of it, and throw it out. FRIDAY already putting an order in for a new one, even though he was sure the lecture from Steve was going to drive him insane. He loved the man, but he hated the lectures, even though they usually ended in fantastic sex, but honestly, it’s like being scolded by your high school principal, which shouldn’t sound as hot as it did at the moment. 

He was left in the workshop alone as the girls walked out, most likely in search of Steve’s cookies, or something to have for dinner, he hadn’t thought that far. It had been a long day, but he was glad to have the kids around to keep him busy. 

“Boss,” FRIDAY’s voice sounded off in the workshop. “Queen Shuri is calling, she says that it’s in regards to Vision.” 

Shuri had taken Vision and the cradle back with her to Wakanda five years ago, the girl had become obsessed with reviving the android, even years later when Tony knew she had settled into her role as Queen she hadn’t stopped searching for answers. He knew that she should really have been out there being a kid, having fun with her friends, but he also knew how it felt to lose all of your family at once. For him it had happened twice in his life. So, whenever she called, he always made sure to talk to her, he also sent Kamala and Riri out to Wakanda so that Shuri would have friends closer to her age, and as smart as they all were, it sometimes backfired on him when they would invent something weird. The last time it had been a prank bomb, that had turned him and Steve blue, it had even seeped in through their clothes, so they looked like the Blue Man Group from head to toe. 

“Put her on,” he said, the girls squealing from the other side of the house, which made him worry, but he would put that aside for later. 

Shuri’s face blinked into life in front of him, she smiled at him and he could see nothing but glee in her eyes. “He’s awake,” she said and Tony felt himself stiffen. 

Why now? Why not five years before? He could have a million questions and no answers, but he didn’t know where to start. So, when he hadn’t said a word Shuri just launched into a whole thing, “I worked on the stone, the one we were trying to create, and yesterday I ended up mixing something I had found in the lab, it was a replica of the fruit that gives the Black Panther powers to the next king. The original fruit doesn’t exist anymore, but the synthetic one I’ve been creating to recreate the fruit is close enough to the original, to the last one that my brother had seven years ago.” 

“But why did that help when nothing else did?” he asked knowing that he needed to look into this himself. “Can you send me the notes on the whole,” he waved his hands not sure where he should start. 

“I will,” she said to him as the cradle pulsed behind her. “He should be up by the end of the day.” 

“Call me the moment he wakes up, I want to know what he says, or if he remembers anything.” 

“I will Tony,” she said before cutting the call off. 

Tony was worried, he knew that this would change a lot of things, and he wasn’t sure if he was prepared for it. It had taken him a long time to move on, to be able to let go of one of the biggest failures of his life. What did it mean when the past started to come back to him, he wondered, especially if he was willing to risk losing his kids in the process. 

* * *

 

It was that time of the week, where Steve went to check on Natasha, she refused to give up working, even after him and Tony had settled down, oftentimes talking to the new Avengers, wherever they were. Steve knew that he was going to have to pull her away from the job one day, but he knew just how hard it was for her, the guilt was consuming her at this point. Steve couldn’t make himself speak up as she sat at the table making herself a sandwich while talking to those that they knew who were scattered around the universe. It was still a strange concept for him, even after the trip to the planet that Thanos had been on, that they could have universe-wide communications. 

"Yeah, we boarded that highly suspect warship that Danvers pinged,” Rocket said from the screen, pulling Steve out of his thoughts. Even though he didn’t want to be Captain America, he was still actively working, Tony knew this, in the same way that Steve knew that Tony made suits of armor for their friends and family. 

“It was an infectious garbage scowl.” Nebula said and Steve could hear her distain, Steve wanted to laugh, even when Nebula was away, she had picked up enough of Tony’s quirks that it showed when she had any kind of emotion. Tony worked for a long time to get her to come to terms with her past, Thor, Bruce, and Valkyrie even more, when she went to visit them in New Asgard. Nebula had made friends with all of them, and was fiercely protective of Tony, which was good. 

“You get a reading on those tremors?” Natasha asked Okoye, pulling Steve out of his thoughts, Okoye looked like she was speaking from Shuri’s lab in Wakanda, which made Steve wonder where the Wakandan Queen was at the moment. 

“It was a mild subduction under the African plate,” Okoye said to her, a worried look on her face. 

"Do we have a visual? How are we handling it?” Natasha continued her questioning as if there was something there that no one was seeing, which was now worrying Steve. 

"Nat, it's an earthquake under the ocean. We handle it by not handling it,” Okoye answered clearly irritated by the whole thing, but they all trusted Natasha enough to keep trying, but all were worried about her and often called Steve or Tony to take her out of the compound for a while. 

“Carol, are we seeing you here next month?” Natasha moved onto the next topic without preamble. 

“Not likely,” Carol answered looking over to where Rhodey was with a sadness in her eyes. 

"What, you gonna get a new haircut?” Rocket said and Steve knew that this was going to diverge quickly into a fight if they weren’t careful/ 

“Listen fur-face, I'm covering a lot of territory. The things that are happening on Earth, are happening everywhere, on thousands of planets,” Carol was clearly irritated over it, especially if she wasn’t going to see her boyfriend in that time. Which had been a surprise to them all, but Steve and Tony took it in stride, even making the couple Kamala’s godparents. 

“That's a good point. That's a good point,” Rocket said, they had all been stretched thin over the last couple of years after the snap happened. 

"So, you might not see me for a long time,” the words weren’t meant for Nat, they were meant for Rhodes who looked defeated from the other com channel. 

“Alright. Uh, well. This channel is always active. So, anything goes sideways... anyone's making trouble where they shouldn't... comes through me,” Natasha continued he work without stopping, her sandwich sitting in front of her. 

As everyone says their goodbyes, Steve is getting ready to move forward, except Rhodey’s still there and Steve’s worried as he hears them talking about Clint leave a pile of bodies in Mexico, Steve had seen the man with his kids not too long ago, but he hadn’t seen them since and now he was worried. 

“It's definitely Barton. What he's done here, what he's been doing for the last few years... I mean, the scene that he left...,” he heard Rhodes say and seeing how Natasha was reacting, Steve realized that he had missed a lot of things over the years. “I gotta tell you, there's a part of me that doesn't even want to find him.” 

"Will you find out where he's going next?” she asks with tears in her eyes. 

“Nat...” 

"Please.” 

“Okay,” Rhodey says reluctantly before cutting the call.  

Steve couldn’t help but feel powerless over everything, he had moved on with Tony, they had all tried to move on, some better than others it seems, which made Steve wonder just how much him and Tony had missed in the last five years if Clint is out there going after bad guys, and Nat is working herself to death because of her guilt. 

“You know I'd offer to cook you dinner but you seem pretty miserable already,” he says to her as he slumps over on the bookshelf finally letting her know that he was there.  

“I thought that Tony was the chef,” she says as she wipes the tears from her face. “Why are you here Steve? Don’t you have a family to take care of?” 

“I’m here to see my friend,” he said to her. “I guess I should have come over more often than I did.” 

“Clearly, your friend is fine,” she said, even though she knew, that he could see through her mask. 

“Clearly you’re not fine Nat, and neither is Clint apparently,” he said to her, sitting down in front of her, wondering if there would be a day when they would all have to intervene. “You know I saw a pod of whales when I was coming up the bridge,” he was trying to get her to lighten up a little, to let go even more, so inane conversations were the best way to go at this moment. 

“In the Hudson?” 

“There's fewer ships, cleaner water, I wish Morgan would have been there, she would have loved to see it, Tony would probably tell her a million things about whales, I would draw them together, and we would go home after seeing something so amazing, all the while Morgan would be talking a mile a minute, all excited about the whole thing.” 

“You know, if you're about to tell me to look on the bright side. Um... I'm about you to hit you in the head with a peanut butter sandwich,” she says to him as a joke, before smiling.  

“Sorry. Force of habit, I have kids I have to keep a lot of people happy,” he said with a sigh. “You know, I keep telling everyone they should move on and... grow. Some do. But not us,” admitting that he wasn’t really over what happened to anymore was a big step. Tony knew, Tony invented a million things to keep the kids safe, Steve read Morgan books about a happier world, and drew with Miles on the side of buildings to bring up people’s moral. But in the back of his head he always wondered about whether they would have been happier if their families had survived. 

“If I move on, who does this?” she says gesturing to the room around them, where moments before the team, while scattered across the universe, still worked together. 

“Maybe it doesn't need to be done,” he tells her, knowing that maybe it was time that they let go of the life that held them to the Avengers. 

“I used to have nothing,” she tells him while looking out into the room. “Then I got this. This job... this family. And I was... I was better because of it. And even though... they're gone... I'm still trying to be better,” she was already in tears, and as much as he still wanted to cry over it all, he couldn’t not anymore. 

“You need to get a life,” he said remembering a time when she was trying her best to set him up with someone.  

“You first,” she tells him, and while he knows it’s a joke he acts offended. 

“I have a life, I have three kids in college, and one at home, who is probably blowing something up with her father right now, because Tony had that manic look on his face this morning, even though I told him to take it easy before I left,” he said sighing as he thought about the crazy things that his husband was probably up to. “Honestly though, Nat, you need to let go of this, at least for a little while, have Rhodey take over and just take a vacation.” 

“I’ll try,” she said before FRIDAY alerted them to something happening at the front gate. Natasha pulled up the feed from the front to show them that Scott and Hope were at the gate, Scott waving his hands around asking to be let in. “What could they want?” 

“Well let's find out,” he said wondering about their sudden appearance himself. 

Letting Scott and Hope into the building was one thing, but their crazy plan well that was another. It was something that Steve wasn’t sure that he was prepared to deal with, but he saw the hope in Natasha’s face, it was a second chance for her. 

“Alright, so five years ago, right before Thanos, Hope’s mother sent me a message though a connection we formed while I was subatomic, she was in a place called the Quantum Realm. The Quantum Realm is like its own microscopic universe,” Scott started, and he had that look in his eyes that Tony got right before he started saying a million things. “To get in there, you have to be incredibly small. So, anyway the last few months we’ve been going over all of the data from when her mother had been trapped inside of the Quantum Realm, and where she had been missing in our time for decades, for her it had been much longer for some reason. So, we tested somethings out, first I went into the machine while Hope took in the data.” 

“He was in there for five hours,” Hope added to the conversation, “But when I pulled him out the timer on the suit said that he had only been inside for five seconds.” 

Steve couldn’t believe what he was hearing, he looked over at Nat as if they had found something that they wouldn’t have thought possible.  

“See, the rules of the Quantum Realm aren't like they are up here. Everything is unpredictable,” Scott said while eyeing Natasha’s sandwich. “Is that anybody's sandwich? I'm starving.” 

“He drove us here all night from California, I tried to make him stop but he swore that this what was needed to figure out a way to talk to you guys,” Hope said watching as Scott shoved the sandwich into his mouth like he hadn’t eaten in days. 

“But what are you talking about?” Steve asked wondering where they were going with the whole explanation.  

“What I'm saying is, time works differently in the Quantum Realm. The only problem is right now, we don't have a way to navigate it. But what if we did? I can't stop thinking about it. What if, we could somehow control the chaos, and we could navigate it? What if there was a way to enter the Quantum Realm at a certain point in time but then exit at another point in time? Like... Like before Thanos.” 

“Wait, are you talking about a time machine?” Steve continued to ask questions, living with Tony for five years turns you into someone who questions everything, because if you don’t Tony would blow something up without thinking. 

“No. No, of course not. No, not a time machine. It's more like a...,” Scott stopped before saying “Yeah, a time machine. I know it's crazy. But I can't stop thinking about it. There's gotta be some way... No, it's crazy.” 

Natasha looked at Scott like this wasn’t the strangest thing in the world for her. “I get e-mails from a raccoon, so nothing sounds crazy anymore.” 

"So,” Hope said looking at the small group in front of her. “Who do we talk to about this? Who can help us crack this, because as brilliant as my father was, I don’t think I have the knowledge to figure this out.” 

There were only two people that came to mind for Steve, one was currently in New Asgard, the other was at home blissfully unaware of what was happening. Steve wasn’t sure if he wanted Tony to know about this, their lives had been good for the last few years, and the thought of losing it all and reliving so much of what had happened scared him. But he also knew that he needed to speak with his husband, they needed to figure this out, because there was always one thing that he thought about over the years and that was the question of their kids. About whether life would have been a lot better if they hadn’t lost their families, he didn’t want to lose them, but if he could give them their families back, he would in a heartbeat. 

* * *

 

The girls set up a tea party for Morgan out on the front porch of the house, Tony’s thoughts still going a mile a minute when he sees them. It calms him in so many ways, he loves his kids, he hadn’t known when they had come into his life if he would have been a good father, but now, years later, while they’re all healthy and happy, he knew that he had done a good job. Both him and Steve had strengths in certain areas, Steve being the one to mostly discipline them, Tony being too soft on them for certain things, they’re both encouraging when it comes to the kids’ individual talents, but also implemented things like martial arts and having them have at least one artistic passion. They were good parents, and he wouldn’t give up any of it for the world. 

They sat out there for an hour, drinking tea, which was actually apple juice, and whatever Steve had baked the day before. The girls telling him stories, Riri telling him about one of her professors, usually Riri talked about her Iron Heart armor, but the professor had had a breakthrough and she just had to share. Kamala wondering how far the fabric on her superhero uniform would stretch, even though the thought of Kamala going out there and getting hurt scared him. Morgan telling him about her imaginary friend, which was just a small bot he had created for her that only comes out when she’s alone. 

When it started getting a little chilly outside, Kamala and Riri had started cleaning up, Morgan picking at her pants and looking around. “What do you want to do now girls?” he asked as he stood, his legs hurting telling him that he wasn’t as young as he used to be, well at least not to be sitting on a little kid’s chair the way he had. 

“Let’s go watch a movie,” Kamala said smiling at Morgan.  

“Frozen,” Morgan yelled out happily. She had gotten into the Disney princess phase of her childhood, and had an affinity for the princesses that stood up for themselves. 

Riri went into the house to set up the movie, Kamala following behind while she talked animatedly about school. From what he’s heard, she was very happy there in her first semester. Tony was certain that she would do so much more than she thought she was capable of and he was happy to hear that she was happy. 

“Come on,” he said as he lifted Morgan onto his hip. “Let’s go watch some Disney Princesses.” 

Morgan rested her head on his shoulder, she was happy and comfortable, her sisters were home, and all that was missing was Steve and Miles, both of which would show up by dinner time. He hears the car before he sees it, it’s Steve’s Audi, the one that Tony had gotten him for his trips into the city, the one that he wasn’t allowed to install FRIDAY on because Steve liked the quiet. Tony’s not sure what to think when he sees three other people in the car with Steve, he knew it was the time of the week when Steve checked on Nat, and usually dragged her to the house for dinner, but he really wasn’t expecting the two other people. 

If Shuri’s call had been a warning, what was about to happen was a full-on storm, and he wasn’t ready for it at all. Sending Morgan into the house with her sisters, he watched Scott told him what he had learned from the Quantum Realm, as Hope chimed in, as Steve looked at him worriedly, Nat’s face not betraying much. They already knew what was going on, and Tony’s not sure how he feels about it.  

"Now, we know what it sounds like...,” Scott says after he’s laid out all of the plan. 

Tony couldn’t help but look at Steve, wondering just how much he was about to lose, “Tony, after everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?” Steve tells him, and in that moment he knew where Steve stood on the whole thing. 

“Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck scale, which then triggers the Deutsch proposition. Can we agree on that?” Tony asks, looking at the people in front of him who barely knew the kind of science experiment that they were trying to attempt. “Thank-you. In Layman's terms, it means you're not coming home,” he finished, knowing that if he lost Steve, the kids, any of it he wouldn’t survive at all. 

“I did,” Scott said to him and Tony wanted to scream out at the man, the whole thing had been a fluke. 

“No, you accidentally survived. It's a billion to one cosmic fluke,” he was voicing his opinion on the whole thing, it had been a small experiment on Lang’s end. “And now you wanna pull off a... What do you call it?” 

“A time heist?” Scott said, admittedly embarrassed by the whole thing. 

“Yeah, a time heist. Of course, why didn't we think of this before? Oh, because it's laughable? Because it's a pipedream?” he said wanting to scream out about the whole scenario, it was too much, he had too much to lose now versus what they had before. 

“The stones are in the past,” Scott said a hopeful look in his eyes. “We can go back and get them,”  

“We can snap our own fingers,” Natasha said, and Tony knew that it was he way of getting something she lost back, he wasn’t sure what, he never really asked what she had lost, or who it had been. “We can bring everyone back.” 

“Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?” Tony said and he saw the look on Steve’s face. 

“I don't believe we would,” Steve told him, and Tony knew that they were going to fight over this, he didn’t want to fight with Steve. Even after blowing the television, even after the tea party and the conversation with Shuri, he hadn’t really expected this to be happening. 

“Gotta say, sometimes I miss that giddy optimism,” he said to Steve knowing that it was a jab at how Steve had been when they had first met, “However, high hopes won't help if there's no logical, tangible way for me to safely execute said time heist. I believe the most likely outcome would be our collective demise.” 

“Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel,” Scott said to them. “That means no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events -” 

“I'm gonna stop you right there, Scott. Are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on Back To The Future?” 

“No,” Scott answered but Tony knew that it was a lie, the whole plan screamed of something Peter would have thought up, which sent a sharp pain right into his heart. 

"Good. You had me worried there. 'Cause that'd be horse shit. That's not how quantum physics works.” 

“Tony... We have to take a stand,” Natasha said and he wasn’t sure just how much he was willing to lose over a half-baked plan that may or may not work. 

“We did stand. And yet, here we are,” the memory of the last battle he had been in, the memory of the lose he had suffered, everything he had gone through with Steve in the last five years, his kids, his life. 

"I know you got a lot on the line,” Hope spoke for the first time. “You got a husband, and kids. But I lost people who were very important to me. A lot of people did. And now, now we have a chance to bring them back. Bring everyone back. And you're telling me that won't even...” 

“That's right,” he said to her. “I won't. Leave it. Got a family,” he looked directly at his husband who was now standing there quietly. He hadn’t heard Morgan run out to him until Steve’s eyes darted to their daughter. 

"Riri told me to come and save you,” she said as he picked her up. Which also meant that his girls had been listening, Riri more than Kamala would know the ramifications of doing this crazy plan without being absolutely certain. They had all lost a lot over the years, they weren’t willing to lose anything else. 

“Good job. I'm saved,” he said kissing her on the head, before turning to Nat, Hope, Scott and his own husband. “I wish you'd come here to ask me something else. Anything else. Honestly, I... I missed you guys,” he said to the other three. “it was... Oh, and table's set for nine.” 

“Tony, I get it. And I'm happy for you, I really am,” Natasha said as Steve walked over to him without saying another word. “But this is a second chance.” 

“I got my second chance right here, Nat. I can't roll the dice again. If you don't talk shop, you can stay for lunch.” 

Tony walked away before Steve could say anything else to his husband, the other man was scared, he was scared for the kids, for the life they had built, he was scared of trying and losing everything he had. He knew this because he was scared too. 

“He's scared,” Natasha said breaking Steve out of his thoughts. 

“He's not wrong Nat, I’m scared too,” he told them. 

“Yeah, but I mean, what are we gonna do? We need him,” Scott said running his hands through his hair. 

"No, I wanna do it right,” Hope said to him. “We're gonna need a really big brain.” 

"Bigger than his?” he said pointing at Steve and Tony’s house, pointing at where Tony had been standing. 

“You guys can take the car,” Steve said not sure of what he should do. “I’m sure Tony’s cooking dinner and the girls are watching a movie, but I can’t leave them.” 

“I understand,” Natasha said to him.  

“Do you want to stay for dinner?” he asked but already knew the answer, they were going to go find their big brain, which would probably be Bruce. 

“No, you need to talk to him, you need family time Steve, I know the risks of doing this more than anyone else, and I know for certain that you and him have a lot on the line if we do end up doing this.” 

“Okay,” he said to her, giving her a quick hug before she got into the car with Scott and Hope, they were going to New Asgard, they were going to see Bruce and Thor. With a final wave, they drove off and Steve went in search of his husband. 

Tony was in the kitchen, slamming cupboard doors, the girls had the tv on as high as they could, which was already pretty loud, so that they wouldn’t hear them arguing. Honestly Steve didn’t want to fight, he just wanted to talk to Tony, but he knew that it wasn’t going to happen. Before he could say anything, Tony held his hand up and pointed towards the garage, Tony’s workshop, and the one place in the whole house that was truly soundproof. They hadn’t fought in a while, not on something this big, but they needed to talk and he knew that Tony was trying to do it without the kids hearing them. 

When the door closed them in, the lights on, and DUM-E and U in their charging stations, Tony turned to look at him, and all Steve could see was heartbreak. 

“I don’t think I can deal with losing them,” he said to Steve, “I already lost on kid, I don’t know what would happen if I lost all of them.” 

“I know Tony,” he said before pulling the man he loved into his arms. “Trust me I know, but I also know that if we had the chance to give them back their families, that we should take it.” 

He could feel Tony’s body shaking, there was a damp feeling on his shirt, and Steve knew that Tony was crying, not just at the thought of trying to pull off the strangest caper he had ever heard of but at the thought of losing the four kids that they had helped raise, and the thought that if he tried and failed to bring everyone back, it would break him completely. 

They stood there for a while, before Tony pulled away, “I knew something was going to happen today, from the moment Shuri called I knew something was going to change.” 

“Why did she call?” he asked curious. 

“Vision will be up by the end of the day,” Tony sighed before walking to the other end of the room. “I’m not sure about how I feel, but I know once he’s up everything will be different.” 

“Tony,” he started but the other man held up his hand. 

“I had been so worried, you want to know why,” he asked waiting for Steve to shake his head. “Morgan and I blew up the TV earlier.” 

Steve couldn’t help but look at him dumbfounded by what he was saying. “What do you mean you blew up the TV?” 

“The one in the living room, the one that was right above the fireplace.” 

Sighing Steve sat down on one of Tony’s chairs, it really was that kind of day for him in the end, the kind where everything happened. “Why?” 

“We were bored,” he said with a shrug. “It happens, but now... Steve now, it really doesn’t matter does it, because you want to do this whole time-heist thing.” 

“I won’t do it if you don’t want me to,” Steve said taking Tony’s hand before he could walk off. “I’m not going to go against you on this, I know how that usually works with us, so it’s either we both agree on it or it doesn’t happen at all.” 

They didn’t talk about if for the rest of the night, Steve saw the look on Riri’s face when they had gone into the family room and sat down to watch the movie, the worried look in Kamala’s eyes as they ate dinner. The only one out of the loop was Miles who had gotten there just as dinner was being served, but Steve knew that his sister would tell him about what was happening. Secrets rarely stayed secret in their house, it was a rule for them, something that Steve had learned after Siberia, secrets weren’t allowed for any of them. 

It was Steve’s turn to put Morgan to bed that night, and Tony was happy for it, because his mind was waging a war on itself over the whole thing. So, he started washing the dishes, a habit that Jarvis had gotten him started on, which was something he did when he was overthinking everything. As he’s finishing up, he accidentally drops a plate into the sudsy water, splashing water and soap everywhere. His mind was everywhere, and not very helpful at all, but when he sees the picture of him and Peter, Peter holding his Stark internship certificate upside down, he remembers the kid’s last words.  

The words haunt him, on nights when he can’t sleep, he swears he could still feel Peter’s ashes in his hands. Tony had given Peter’s Aunt, the ashes he could collect, the two released them around Queens a year after the decimation. Both of them had thrown themselves into their work, May working on various charities, Tony into his business and his family. But now, as he looked at Peter’s smiling face, he knew that he needed to do this, not just for him, but for Riri, Kamala, Miles, and Morgan. They all deserved to see their families again. 

Sighing, Tony went to his office area and sat down, pulling up the specs for the machine that Scott and Hope had been talking about. FRIDAY helping him generate model after model of the machine. 

“Look at a mod inspiration, let me see what check out. So, recommend one last sim before we pack it in for the night. This time, in the shape of a mobius strip, inverted, please,” he said. 

“Processing...” she answered as she worked on the model. 

“Give me that eigenvalue. That, particle factoring, and a spectral decomp. Gotta take a second.” 

“Just a moment.” 

“And don't worry if it doesn't pan out. I'm just kinda -” he watched the image change, as everything started coming together. 

“Model rendered,” she said as she finished, Tony wasn’t sure about anything but he was amazed as the model completed itself. It was the best he could do, which was a lot, and he knew he should have Shuri and Bruce look it over, but he knew that it was perfect. 

“Shit!” he said out loud. 

“Shit!” a soft voice said from behind him and Tony could feel himself stiffening before putting his hand on Morgan’s mouth. 

“Language,” he heard Steve say from the other room.  

“Sorry,” he yelled out before Steve could walk into the room.  

Morgan was giggling into his hand, “What are you doing up, little miss?” 

“Shit,” she said again and Tony wanted nothing more than to hit his own head against the table. Steve was going to kill him. 

“No, we don't say that. Only daddy says that word. I coined it, it belongs to me,” he said trying to defuse the situation, he didn’t want Steve to hear her saying the word, he didn’t want the wrath of his husband because he taught their youngest how to curse.  

“Why you up?” she asked him as she climbed onto his lap. 

“'Cause I got some important shit going on here. What do you think?” he said without thinking.... he was in so much trouble. “I got something on my mind. I got something on my mind.” 

“Was it Juice Pops?” she said and he was sure that he wasn’t the one who taught her to use a situation to her advantage, that was Steve all over. 

“Sure was. That's extortion,” yup that was all Steve right there, he was the one with those great big puppy dog eyes, the ones that got Tony to do whatever the man wanted. “Great minds think alike. Juice Pops, exactly was on... my mind.”  

He ran with it, if it meant that he could get her back to bed before Steve found out that she was awake, which was highly unlikely because he had super hearing, and also because Steve had a sixth sense of when the kids were going to do something, or doing something that they shouldn’t be doing. 

“Are you done?” he asked before taking the last of the Juice Pop and putting it in his own mouth. “Yeah, now you are,” he pushed her head down onto her pillow. “That face goes there,” he said smiling. He really loved his kids, even now he still went into the others rooms and kissed them goodnight. 

“Tell me a story,” she said before letting out a big yawn. 

“A story,” he said before thinking about what to say. “Once upon a time, a girl went to bed. The end.” 

Morgan started giggling, and Tony was sure that it was one of the most wonderful sounds in the world for him. “That ain't the whole story.” 

“Come on, that's your favorite story,” he said smiling at her. “I love you tons.” 

“I love you 3000,” she said and his heart was ready to burst, he really loved his kids if they could give him the kind of joy that he never had with his own parents. 

“Wow. 3000. That's crazy, who taught you that?” 

“Uncle Rhodey,” she said with a smile. 

 “Good for Uncle Rhodey, now go to bed. Or I'll sell all your toys,” he said knowing the lie wouldn’t phase her. “Night, night.” 

“Goodnight,” she said as she turned over hugging her favorite toy to her chest. 

If there was one thing he wouldn’t give up, even if he decided to do the time heist, it was his kids, yes, their families would be back, but they would be his no matter what. They owned his heart. Tony made his way down to the living room, a smile on his face as he saw Steve sitting on one of the chairs reading. 

“Not that it's a competition or anything, but Morgan said that she loves me 3000,” he said as he sat on the arm of the chair, putting his head on Steve’s. “You were somewhere on the low 6 to 900 scale.” 

Steve laughed at him before turning his head up and giving him a kiss. “Well at least now we know that you’re her favorite.” 

“Blasphemy, she loves us both, she has no favorites,” he said smiling. “What are you reading?” 

“Oh, it's just a book,” he said but Tony grabbed it and turned it over, seeing yet another history book. 

"Don’t you already know enough about history?” 

“Tony, there’s always something that we miss, and you know this,” Steve said to him before closing the book. “It’s just...” 

“I figured it out, by the way,” he said before Steve could finish. He felt his husband stiffening under him. 

“You know, just so we're talking about the same thing -” 

“Time travel.” 

“Shit,” Steve said looking at him. 

“Language,” Tony answered only to earn a glare from Steve. 

“We’ll get back to Morgan learning that word from you later... wow... That's amazing, and... terrifying,” he said to Tony, and honestly it was terrifying to think about. 

“That's right,” Tony said slumping into the chair. 

“We got really lucky,” he said and Tony knew this, even after everything they’ve been through over the years, they had gotten really lucky in finding each other. 

“Yeah, I know.” 

“A lot of people didn't, we’ve got four kids upstairs that lost everyone they cared about.” 

“No but Steve, I can't help everybody.” 

“It sorta seems like you can,” he said and Tony knew that this was the moment where he would really have to make a decision. 

“Not if I stop. I can put a pin in it right now, and stop,” he said knowing he wouldn’t be able to. 

“Tony, do you think that you really can?” 

“I sometimes feel I should put it in a locked box and drop it at the bottom of a lake... go to bed,” he said wishing that he could do it without the ramifications of what it would do to the people he loved and cared about the most. 

“But would you be able to rest?” Steve asks him, looking into his eyes, and Tony knows that he wouldn’t. Shaking his head, feeling as if he had already lost everything. 

“I can’t lose this Steve,” he said feeling the tears start, “I don’t know if I can live through all of that again, knowing what I have now.” 

“I know, trust me, I’ve been thinking about this since Scott and Hope showed up, it’s a lot to think about,” Steve said as he held onto Tony’s waist. “Trust me the thought of going through all of that again, the Civil War, Ultron, me lying to you, any of it, it hurts. But we have to think about it because we can’t let people lose everything and not give them the chance to get it all back.” 

Tony nodded, he knew the pain of it all would be crazy, but he didn’t know how to go about it all without dramatically changing the past, without altering their futures as they knew it. He didn’t know if he could really give up his kids, his life with Steve, it was something that they really needed to think about, and it was something that was going to take more than one day to figure out. 

“Boss, Shuri’s on the line,” FRIDAY said forcing the two of them to stop their own conversation. 

Sighing Tony stood up from where he was and pulled Steve along with him. They walked into the workshop and closed the door, sealing them inside so that the kids wouldn’t be able to eavesdrop on them.  

“Hey Shuri,” he said as the picture of the Queen of Wakanda illuminated the room. “Is he up?” 

“Yes, and he remembers everything, he’s been asking for you all, he’s been asking for Wanda too, but I haven’t told him anything,” she said looking at him with a worried look in his eyes. “I don’t know what to do.” 

“Put him on,” Tony said without hesitation, he remembers when he was trying his best because Wanda was going to need Vision, if the heist went as planned, she would still need him just as much as they would all need each other. 

Vision’s face came up on the screen, no longer grey and dead, it was strange to see him alive when everyone else had died. “Hello Mr. Stark.” 

“Damn it V, I thought we were past this,” Tony said but it felt good to say it out loud. 

“Hello Captain Rogers,” Vision said looking over at Steve. “It is good to see that you two have reconciled.” 

“Yeah it is,” Steve said with a smile. “How are you Vision?” 

“I’m not sure, the stone on my head is not the Mind Stone, but it has similar properties to it, though I know the original stone no longer exists,” Vision said and Tony knew that there had been a real connection to the mind stone. “I know that a lot of things are amiss.” 

“Yes, they are,” Steve said and they both saw as Vision’s face changed to sadness.  

“I can feel a great disturbance in the universe, my connection to the stone has evolved, while the stone itself no longer exists, I feel as though the entity that had been within it still does, and they’re searching for something,” Vision’s words were like a punch in the gut, if the stones didn’t exist physically what would that mean for the universe itself? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please tell me if any of this makes sense? Also... what do you think of me introducing America into the story? Because I actually have this weird head canon, that will probably make its way into the story, but it involves another character that already exists in the story universe and America. But you'll find out about it later on don't worry. Hopefully, I won't be doing the chapters like this anymore, who knows.


	5. So, you want to travel through time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's plans to be made

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took so long to write, mainly because somethings happen.... Anyways  
> I didn't put in the Professor Hulk thing, mainly because I've always thought that the Hulk and Bruce were two separate beings that existed within one body, plus I like that they're different, it makes it more fun!! There's also a few relationships happening.... mostly between the same four people. I ship them.... that's all that matters  
> There's a lot happening, so I hope it makes sense.  
> Also Quantum Theory is impossible if you don't have a degree in it, I tried to read up on it and it made no sense to me.

When they arrived, NAF looked like another world, Tony helped with the upkeep, but he never came back to the facility, it felt like the place where his greatest wishes and his greatest fears had come to life. It was like coming home after being away for a long time, but the grounds were barely upkept, and the darkness of the early morning made it feel like it was another world altogether.

“We can turn around and act like we don’t know anything,” Tony said quietly, the kids in the back seat of the car asleep in their seats. “We don’t have to be here,” he kept going, it was fear that was running through his mind. They lost everything once, he couldn’t bare losing everything all over again.

“We have to try Tony,” Steve said to him, taking his hand, while Tony’s other hand gripped the wheel of the car. “I know you’re scared, I’m as scared as you are, but we can’t live like this anymore and you know it. It’s the reason why you worked on the time travel paradox or whatever that is.”

“It’s Quantum Physics Steve,” he said, and he knew it sounded childish while he said it, but Steve just smiled at him.

“I don’t understand half the things you say, I can remember all of it, but in the end,  I just like hearing you talk when you’re excited about something, but this, Tony this could fix everything, not just for us but for all the people that lost something that day.”

He wanted to grumble, he knew that even if they brought everyone back, if they changed everything, it would create more problems than any of them could think about. But in his heart, he still wanted to bring Peter back for May, to bring Laura back for Clint, T’Challa for Shuri, Bucky and Sam for Steve and Natasha. Who had surprised him when he had heard about her past with the Winter Soldier, a past that hadn’t come true for them. They all needed something, but for the Avengers, they needed their family back.

“Steve, what if trying to fix everything brings more problems? What if trying to change what happened costs us what we love the most?” he didn’t say it, but he was afraid that even Steve would leave him, if they tried to change everything.

“I don’t think that we’d lose anything Tony,” Steve said to him. “We’ve already gained so much, maybe we’d just get something even better.”

They were quiet as they drove towards the facility, Natasha, Bruce, Scott, Hope, as well as Vision and Shuri, were standing there, none of them looked like they had slept at all. Tony sighed as he got out of the car, leaving all of the windows down so the air would circulate while the kids slept. Steve followed him, hugging everyone as he got to them.

“Are we really going to try this?” Bruce said skepticism in his voice. “Because honestly it sounds crazy, hell when I told Thor where I was going and what we were thinking of doing he just laughed in my face.”

“We have to try something,” Shuri said to them, hope in her voice. She had grown up too much too fast in the last five years. “I want my family back, I want my people to have not suffered the loss of two kings so close together.”

“We have to try,” Scott added, a hopeful look in his eyes, one that Tony had seen when he had come to the house.

He sighed before leaning into his husband, “We’ll try, but the first thing we’re going to have to do is get everyone here, we’re not doing this alone, we need a team.”

“Together,” Steve said with a smile, even after that argument five years before, even after everything that had happened, there was something about them being together, all of them working towards something better, that made it all the worth wild.

“Let’s get to work then,” Natasha said with a smile on her face, Tony walked up to her and hugged her. They had been close once, they still were, but not like they had been before, grief can consume a person, and he knew he had failed her, but this was the way to make it up to her.

Everyone went off towards the lab, Tony stayed behind with the kids, as Shuri stood next to him. They were silent for a while, the sun rising in front of them, nothing but possibilities, an endless future, one that they were going to alter for the sake of saving billions of lives.

“My brother once told me,” Shuri said as the sky turned purple, “That no matter where I am in the world, I will always have the skies of Wakanda with me. When I became queen I understood what he was saying, as I watched that first sunrise in front of my people, and it hurt more than anything because it was something we had once shared.”

“We can lose a lot doing this,” he said his eyes on the kids in the car, Morgan somehow draped over Miles and Riri, while Kamala’s head was on Riri’s shoulder. “I’m going to lose a lot in doing this, and it hurts to think that we won’t know the outcome until we risk everything we have.”

“But if you could give them their families back,” she said but he knew where she was going. She lost her family, her people suffered great losses from the battle.

“If I can give them back their lives, and keep them at the same time I would,” he said with a sigh.

He was going to drop them off with Pepper and Happy, she was going to keep them at her house until they were finished, but Tony wasn’t sure if he would be able to say goodbye to them knowing that he might never see them again. They were his kids, in this universe, in any universe, Steve thought so as well, they were a family, and he knew that a parent would sacrifice anything for their children, and that’s what he was going to do.

“Did you bring the vibranium?” he asked, she had taken what had been left of what he had gotten from his little space adventure, and he hoped that she would bring more. He needed to make something to stabilize their trip, and the vibranium would be useful in creating what he needed.

She placed a box in his hand, “This is everything you asked for, but take care of it because I am not sure if we can get anymore of the one you brought with you.”

“Thank you Shuri,” he said with a small smile. “You have my notes to get started, if anyone asks, I’m going to take them to Pepper’s, I’ll be back soon.”

With a nod she walked off leaving him alone with his thoughts, it was their one shot, he had told Steve that he had figured it out, but he hadn’t worked on what they needed to ensure that the trip would be successful.

The drive to Pepper’s was quiet for the first fifteen minutes, and then the kids woke up one by one, Tony knew that they had been listening, they’re nosy little bugs, but they were curious all the same. The only one that was still asleep was Morgan, she was slumped over in her car seat her mouth opened just a little bit as she softly breathed.

“Why can’t we help?” Kamala was the first to speak after the three oldest kids talked in hushed voices. “We want to help.”

“Yeah Dad, we can do a lot of things, I can lift the heavy stuff,” Miles added and Tony knew it was the truth.

“Miles I have your dad for that,” Tony answered keeping his eyes on the road, he wanted them somewhere safe, nowhere near where they were in case something happened.

“But Dad the Ironheart armor is safe, and you’ve upgraded every single protocol for all of our suits,” Riri started, it felt almost as if they had planned on ambushing him with their intent on helping.

He knew he was in for another round of this as he pulled into the McDonalds that was in between the New Avengers Facility and Pepper’s house, and if he had to hear them arguing their point, he was going to need some coffee. He was going to need a lot of coffee to deal with three superpowered teenagers. He ordered breakfast sandwiches for all of them and two of the largest coffee he could get for himself. Even after his conversation with Steve the night before he had stayed up all night working on the safest way for them to time travel. FRIDAY was fabricating the devices so that he would be able to pick them up on his way back.

Miles moved forward, sitting next to Tony, giving him that puppy eyed stare that he had learned from Steve, “Please dad we want to help.”

“And I want you all to be safe,” he said to them his voice a little quiet. “I don’t know what I would do if I lost you all, and we don’t know what’s going to happen, so for now just stay with your Aunt Pepper,” they were quiet, it probably had something to do with how raw everything felt, he rarely showed sadness towards them, they had had enough of it over the last few years. “If we need you, if we’re desperate, FRIDAY will call you.”

They all nodded, Miles throwing his arms around him, “We’ll wait for the call then,” he said before the girls joined in. They were his family, just like the Avengers were, carefully stitched up together.

* * *

 

There was something about watching the Avengers work, they were still only half of a team, Rhodes was off getting Clint, Nebula, Rocket and Carol were all on their way, Thor and Valkyrie were driving down, Bruce had told him that Thor had taken the last fight horribly and they had been trying with him.

“He’s a little depressed Steve,” Bruce said the last time he had seen him. “He lost a lot before Thanos showed up, and lost even more since that first fight.”

“Do you think he would step back from helping us?”

“I don’t know it’s entirely up to him, but he’s trying to move on and it’s not my place to stop him, even if he has some rather self-destructive tendencies lately.”

Steve wondered just how far Thor’s grief had gone, but they had all been grieving, and while Steve had Tony, Thor had Bruce and Valkyrie with him. Now as they stood there helping out with the calculations that Tony had given them, trying to figure out what they needed to do, Steve had to wonder if he had tried hard enough with everyone. He knew it wasn’t his place, they all needed to grieve in their own way, in their own time, but it still hurt to think that he had let a least one of them down just a little.

“Five years ago,” Bruce started as Steve sat down next to him. “Five years ago, we got our asses beat. Except it was worse for me, because I lost twice. First, Hulk lost, then Banner lost. Then, we all lost.”

“No one blamed you Bruce,” Natasha said looking at him with something in her eyes, their relationship hadn’t worked out, but their friendship still stood there in the ashes. They were a family, one that that stuck together.

“I did, I couldn’t get the Hulk to help out during the invasion, I had to rely on Tony’s tech without really knowing how to use it. It felt like failure to me, I’ve been treating the Hulk like he’s some kind of disease for years, something I had to get rid of.”

“You can’t think like that,” Steve said to him.

“I don’t anymore,” Bruce said looking at him. “Remember I told you about how Thor was coping with everything, well in the end he also helped me learn more about myself and about the Hulk. We’re not the same, we would never be, but we’re together in all of this, we’re like brothers except we share a single body. So, I learned, and left thing for him to learn, in the end what happened was a coexistence of a kind. I let him out more, he stopped trying to take over, we learned to be.”

“So, what is it like?” Scott asked curiously enough to keep Bruce talking.

“It was weird at first, but I learned that if I needed some stimulus, so did he, so he trained, and I trained, we learned, we shared, he’s not as angry as before, and we’re both calmer than I have ever remembered.”

“Have you ever wondered what would happen if you combined both until you were one being?” Hope asked, Steve knew they were curious, they hadn’t worked with either Bruce or the Hulk before.

“I did once, but I realized that we would lose so much of each other, the Hulk and I aren’t one person, we’re two different people living together, I would rather it be the two of us sharing than one of us alone.”

It was strange to listen to Bruce talk about the Hulk as two different people, but Steve knew it was the truth, he had seen the differences in the two of them, and honestly, he wouldn’t trade one for the other either. They had learned long ago that they needed to treat them as such, and he was glad that Bruce himself had learned to do the same. He could tell that Scott and Hope wanted to ask more questions, they all had questions about something, but they didn’t have the time. Once everyone was ready, they were going to have to move forward with this.

“Let get to work,” he said getting up as Bruce and Shuri began to move towards the door, the two of them talking in hushed tones about the calculations that Tony had been working on the night before. There was no stopping Steve from remembering what his husband had said, the conflict in his eyes, they were risking more than their own lives here, they were risking everything that they had spent five years working towards.

“Steve,” Natasha said from behind him, he hadn’t noticed that Scott and Hope had left, but there was a lot of things happening. “I need to go somewhere first,” she told him and he knew that where ever it was it had to do with Clint. Clint and the kids had been her family a lot longer than the Avengers had.

“I know,” he said wondering where everything had gone wrong when it came to Clint. “Where are the kids?”

“They’re asleep in his room,” she said to him her hands nervously moving to fix something around her. “They’ve been there all night, from the moment I told them that I was going to drag their father kicking and screaming back to the states.”

“Where is he? I mean I know Rhodes has been tracking him, but I don’t really know what he’s been up to.”

“He’s been... well he’s been everywhere,” she sat at the edge of the table. “There were rumors at first, of an assassin named Ronin going around, killing those who he thought shouldn’t have survived the decimation, mostly mobsters, gang members, and the cartel.”

“Clint’s seeing himself as an executioner, is this because he had lost Laura?”

“There’s something that we never told you guys,” there was a sadness in her eyes, it hurt him just as much to see them all suffering but Natasha had taken on a heavier burden when Tony and him had both decided on retiring. This was one of the consequences of that. “Laura had been pregnant when she had, well you know, they had been getting back to being a family again, she had felt betrayed by him joining you during the war, but they had learned to be with one another again, so that day, Clint lost a lot more than just his wife, he lost that second chance.”

“He still has his kids.”

“And he feels like he’s failed them too.”

“Bring him back Nat, those kids need him,” he told her before putting his arm around her. “We’ll get her back for him, we’ll get them all back, but I don’t want Clint to have a guilty conscience because of what he’s done to cope with losing his wife and their child.”

“I’ll try my best, just make sure you guys don’t start without me,” she said giving him a sad smile.

He walked her to the quinjet and got her started when Vision joined them, “I would like to accompany you Ms. Romanoff,” he said, it was the first time since they got there that he spoke. Steve knew that Tony would want to talk to the android, but there was something in Vision’s eyes that told him to let the android go.

“Keep her safe Vision,” he said without giving Natasha the option to say no, she looked at him shocked for a moment, but he knew that she understood. If Clint had more than one person standing in his way, more than one of them reminding him of what he left behind, the man would be more inclined to return with them.

The two flew off leaving him to stand there for a moment and wonder just what they were getting themselves into, there was so much they were willing to do to help the world heal, but for him he knew just how much he was going to lose. If it meant that the kids would have their family back, it would be worth it, but what would it mean for him and Tony, for the Avengers, for the future. There were too many what ifs to ask himself, too many problems that could come from what they were thinking of doing. If they messed up just a little the fate of the world would crumble.

It was a few hours later, as he looked at the device in the back of Scott’s van, with Hope there calibrating the whole device, Bruce and Shuri working around Tony’s theory. Where Steve was wondering if it was a good idea at all.

“Okay, here we go,” Bruce said as he started inputting the data, “Time travel test number one, Hope fire up the uhhh.... the van I guess.”

“The breakers are set, and the emergency generators are on standby,” Shuri said working from her own set of computers, a hopeful look in her eyes.

“Good, cause if we blow the grid, I don’t wanna lose tiny here in the 1950s,” he said wiping his forehead. Steve saw as they alll turned to look at Bruce, they weren’t sure if he was joking or if he was telling the truth.

Scott let out a panicked “Excuse me?”

“He’s kidding,” Hope said as she stood next to Bruce helping him with the machine. “You can’t say things like that!” she told Bruce, Steve’s super soldier hearing picking it up, which only made him want to laugh.

“Just.... it was a bad joke,” Bruce said letting out a laugh.

“You were kidding right?” Shuri asked next to him and Bruce shrugged.

“I have no idea, this is the first time I’ve done this,” he said, and Steve knew that they should have waited for Tony to come back, three geniuses were better than none, plus it would reassure Bruce more to have his friend there with him. “We’re talking about time travel here,” Bruce continued talking to Shuri. “Either it’s all a joke, or none of it is.”

Bruce and Shuri started pressing buttons, Steve wasn’t sure what any of it did, at this point everything was to test one theory or another.

“Get your helmet on, Scott,” Hope said with a smile as she listened to the panicked conversation happening next to her. “We’re going to start by sending you back a week, let you walk around for an hour, and then we’ll bring you back in 10 seconds. That makes sense, right?”

“Perfectly not confusing love,” Scott answered with a smile, but they could all see the worry in his eyes.

“Good luck, Scott. You got this,” Steve said reassuring the man only to have Scott smile at him in that weird fanboy smile had had gotten the first time they met.

“You’re right, I do,” he said hopeful, he said before saluting to Steve. “Because if Captain America is telling me good luck then nothing can go wrong.”

“There’s that fanboy I know and love,” Hope said laughing.

“On the count of three,” Bruce said looking at the group around him before saying, “3... 2... 1!”

The moment Bruce pushed the button Steve felt himself holding his breath as Scott disappeared into the Quantum Tunnel. Barely five seconds passed before Bruce pressed another button and someone appear in the Ant-man suit, from the looks of it, it was a teenage Scott standing there.

“Uh guys?” Scott let out a panicked cry. “This.... this doesn’t feel right.”

“He looks cute as a teenager,” Hope said smiling.

“What’s going on?” Bruce said, only to turn to see Shuri laughing next to him. Steve knew that this was going to be a disaster, just from the smiling and laughing that Hope and Shuri were doing. Bruce started recalculating before pushing a series of buttons.

“You think I’m cute,” Scott says looking at Hope before he gets sucked back into the quantum tunnel.

“He really was a cute kid,” she said smiling. “I’ll tell him more later.”

Unfortunately, when Scott came back the second them, he was an old man “Ow! My back!” Scott said which only made Hope laugh even harder than she had before. Shuri snorted next to her causing Bruce to start laughing too.

“What is this?” Steve said once the trio had gotten themselves under control.

“Can I get a little space here,” Bruce said pressing some more buttons, but Steve was starting to get worried about the whole thing.

“Can you bring him back?” Steve asked, “Or make him normal again?”

“I’m working on it,” Bruce said, and Steve could see the panic in the man’s eyes. So, when Bruce pressed the buttons again, they weren’t expecting a baby to show up in front of him.

“He’s a baby now,” Steve said looking at the drooling infant in front of him.

“Aw, can we keep him,” Shuri said a smile on her face, for some reason Scott’s ordeal had given them all something to laugh about. Steve was sure that FRIDAY was recording because this was something that they were all going to have a laugh over when Scott was back to normal.

“Shuri, it’s Scott,” Hope said with a hint of glee in her eyes. “As adorable as he is this way, I do like him as an adult.”

“But he’ll grow,” Shuri answered before the two started laughing again.

“Bruce bring Scott back before these two get any weird ideas,” Steve said keeping an eye on the other two, as they started laughing again.

“Okay,” Bruce said motioning towards Hope. “When I say kill the power to the tunnel, you kill the power.”

“Oh my god,” Hope said getting ready to do what Bruce told her as baby Scott get sucked back into the machine.

“Ready.... and kill it!” Bruce said, Hope pulling the lever to shut down the power just as Scott reappeared as he was when they had started.

“Someone peed my pants,” Scott said looking down to see if it was coming out of the suit. “But I don’t know if it was “baby” me or “old” me... or just “me” me.”

Bruce held up his hands, doing what Tony often referred to as jazz hands whenever the kids did something, “Time travel.”

“What?” Steve said looking over at the man astonished that they hadn’t killed Scott in the process.

“I see this as an absolute win!” Bruce said, and they all just looked at him with absolute horror.

“How was that a win?” Steve said, his voice hitting a register that was normally saved for when either Tony or the kids did something stupid.

“Well he’s still alive,” was all Bruce said before Steve sighed and walked off, he needed some air, and a moment away from whatever craziness had just happened.

The car was mostly silent, Tony liked it that way, it ran on clean energy, he worked on it like crazy. So, when he saw Steve standing outside of the facility, he couldn’t help but drive by as fast as he could before stopping in front of his husband who looked like he was just tired of everything that had happened.

“Why the long face?” he said while rolling down the window, the trip home had taken longer than it should have, but that was because he had to deal with a cranky Morgan, who wasn’t happy that her fathers were going somewhere without her. She hung out with her sibling's way too much for Tony’s sake, well at that point anyway. “Let me guess, Lang turned into a baby.”

“Among other things yeah,” Steve leaned down to give him a kiss. “What took you so long?”

Tony shrugged his shoulders before getting out of the car and heading towards the trunk. “That’s the EPR paradox,” he said ignoring Steve’s question, because he knew that his husband wasn’t incline to hear the complete story. “Instead of pushing Lang through time, you might’ve wound up pushing time through Lang. It’s tricky. Dangerous. Somebody should’ve cautioned you against it.”

“You did, but then again you weren’t here and all we had were your notes.”

“Oh really? Well thank Thor I’m here. Regardless, I fixed it,” he said holding up his right hand, the device had been ready when he had gotten back to the house, so he knew all he needed was a couple of things, including his suit which was now nestled in its little device. “It’s a fully functioning Time-Space GPS. FRIDAY hadn’t had it ready when we left this morning, plus I needed to go back to the house for somethings.”

He turned to Steve, knowing that he needed to say his peace, especially with what could possibly be the outcome of their lives from this moment forward. “Steve, we’ve got a shot, a real shot at getting these stones, but I have to tell you my priorities, to bring everyone back, definitely yes, but I also want to keep what I’ve got, what we have, I have to at all costs, because I can’t lose you or those kids. And maybe we should try not dying in the process because honestly, I’m sure they would resurrect us just to beat the living shit out of us.”

When Steve let out a laugh as that and pulled him into his arms Tony felt himself relax a little, “Sounds like a deal Shellhead,” he whispered into Tony’s ear.

“Okay now onto other matters,” Tony said as he pulled out Steve’s Shield, the same one that he hadn’t taken with him on the first trip to find the stones.

“Tony, I don’t know,” Steve said, and Tony knew that Steve still had issues with the Shield, he had let go of it once and lost everything.

“Steve, you have to take it, it’s a part of you,” he said knowing that it hurt to look at some days, for both of them. “I cleaned it up for you, painted it and everything. Plus, if we’re talking honestly, we have to get it out of the workshop before Morgan takes it sledding.”

Steve let out a laugh as Tony took the shield and propped it up for Steve’s arm. “Thank you, Tony,” Steve said as he slid his hand into the straps. “For everything, for the life we have, the kids, giving me a home.”

“Yeah well keep it a little quiet, will you,” he felt his face flush at what Steve was saying. “I didn’t bring anything for anyone else... well except the bracelets, but we kind of need them for this little adventure. We’re getting everyone right?”

“We’re working on it,” there was a hint of something in Steve’s voice, which only worried him. “Nat and Viz went to get Clint, the kids aren’t happy about him leaving, Bruce is driving them to Pepper and Happy’s right now, or at least he was going to I’m not sure if he left yet.”

Almost as if they had summoned their friends, Tony saw Scott walk out of the building holding some tacos in his hand. “I guess it’s lunch time,” Tony said and Steve nodded. Before either could say another word the Benatar landed on the front lawn near where Lang was sitting, Tony snorted when the stuff inside the taco fell out.

“Hey, homie!” Rocket said as he walked out of the ship. “Where’s Big Green?” Tony couldn’t help but smile, mainly because even when he wasn’t hulked out, Bruce was still Big Green to the raccoon, who had saw the man as a friend.

“Uh, kitchen, I think,” he said still in awe of their friends, Tony remembered that Lang hadn’t interacted with Nebula or Rocket before. “That’s awesome,” he said when Nebula was near him, her arm shining in the sun.

“Rhodey, careful on re-entry. There’s an idiot on the landing zone,” she said into the earpiece, it had been something Tony worked on that bounced through all of the relays they had sent out during their trip.

Nebula starts walking towards them when Rhodey lands in front of Lang who drops the rest of his taco.

“Oh, God!” Lang says holding onto his chest.

“What’s up, regular sized man?” Rhodey says before walking off with Nebula, as they make their way towards where Steve and Tony were both standing.

Tony couldn’t hold back the laugh he had been holding in while watching the whole interaction play out. Even when Bruce came out with more tacos, giving some to Scott on the way to the ship so that he could leave with Rocket to drop the kids off at Peppers, Tony couldn’t stop laughing.

“It wasn’t that funny,” Steve said a fond smile on his face.

“It was as funny as that day we were playing cards against humanity and you got that Hitler question,” Tony said laughing even harder. “You.... you wouldn’t even look at me, or the kids.”

“Yeah well it was true,” Steve said rubbing Tony’s back.

“You know, you two are made for each other,” Rhodey said as stepped out of the War Machine suit. “They’re two idiots that’s what they are.”

“Aww buttercup, you just miss Carol,” Tony said as he hugged his best friend. “Don’t worry she’s on her way, probably will show up glowing and everything.”

“Yeah, yeah, anyway so what’s the plan?”

“We’ll talk about that once everyone is back, for now just stow away the suit, and apparently get some tacos while there’s some left.”

Nebula was looking at him, her eyes still stoic as ever, but there was something in her eyes, and it just made Tony grab her and give her a hug. She was one of his kids, like Peter, Vision and Harley, like his bots and his girl FRIDAY.

“How’s it going cyborg princess,” he said to her, a reminder of their trip, a reminder of when they became a family. Even though she didn’t say anything, her arms came up around him and held on. It was her way of showing affection, without saying anything, it was her way of saying _I’m home_ , and it was the best thing he could have asked for. “When this is all over, you have to come for a visit, Morgan is so big, and Riri has some designs she wants to show you.”

Nebula nodded at him, “I will,” was all she said. By the time this was all over, she would have her other family back, just like he would, everyone they cared about that they had lost would be back.

“Alright, let's get to work,” he said pulling Nebula and Steve along, Nebula had grabbed onto Rhodey and started pulling him along. She was more, well human in the years since they met, she still didn’t show a lot of emotion, but she held the people she cared about most very close to her. Tony knew some of the reasons why, even after they had all lost everything, the ones left behind needed one another more than anything. Hopefully doing this will give her something more than what she already has.

Gathering everyone took more time that they had anticipated, mainly because they were all scattered around the known universe, Carol didn’t show up until late at night, Thor and Valkyrie somehow ended up showing up with Bruce and Rocket, but it was Natasha and Vision’s return that had spawned a huge fight, when Lila Barton, who had snuck her way back into the ship with Bruce started yelling at her father, much to the surprise of everyone in the room.

Tony couldn’t help but stare at the feisty girl he had watched grow up as she literally yelled at her father, she was shorter than the archer, and looked a lot like her mother.

“How could you,” Lila yelled, she had come from nowhere anyone had seen to a very haggard looking Clint, “You just left us, I’m not supposed to be taking care of everyone Dad.”

The rest of the facilities inhabitants were beginning to walk over to see what was happening, and honestly Tony wasn’t sure if he should intervene or not, considering Clint had been spending less and less time with his kids. The three of them had spent more time over the years at his and Steve’s house than they had with their own father. All of the Avengers were sure that when Clint went back to the farm house he rarely spent time with the kids, even when he tried his best, but the loss of his wife had hit the man very hard.

“You can’t just leave when you want to,” Lila yelled as the rest of the Avengers watched. “You have three kids, Nate’s never sure when you’ll be back, Uncle Tony and Uncle Steve shouldn’t be the ones taking care of us, that’s your job,” she was heaving, as she stopped, fresh tears in her eyes. “You weren’t even there for my first date, Cooper had to act like a dad is supposed to act, and it hurt.”

There was a painful look on Lila’s face, the same look Tony had always had when his father ignored him growing up. He knew what it was to have a parent who wasn’t there, it was one of the reasons he had been okay with the kids spending so much time at his house. When he looked at Clint, the man looked as if she had hit him, even though she hadn’t, and Tony knew that it was because the severity of what he had done, more like what he hadn’t.

“I’m sorry,” Clint whispered as he pulled his daughter into his arms, “I’m sorry,” he continued as the tears fell.

It was painful to watch, and it took everything he had not to breakdown himself, instead of watching as the two continued to talk, he pulled Steve towards the building, motioning for everyone else to follow. The two needed a moment, Clint needed to see what his absence was doing to those who had survived with him.

“Let them have a moment,” Tony said as everyone gathered inside. “We’ll reconvene in an hour, FRIDAY, order some food for everyone here,” he called out to his AI before pulling Steve along with him. “Chinese would be good, and maybe Pizza if people don’t want that.”

“One hour, freshen up, get settled, we have work to do,” Steve said before pulling Tony towards Tony’s old workshop. He hadn’t used it in years, since he mostly worked from home, but it was familiar to the both of them. Steve could tell that what had happened had bothered Tony, mainly because of his strained relationship with Howard, something that still urks him, because he would have thought that the father and son would have been like Tony was with Riri when it came to creating tech, but it hadn’t happened that way.

“Are you okay?” he asked once the doors had closed.

There was something in Tony’s eyes, a mixture of hurt and sadness, “I don’t know,” he said to Steve. “I really don’t know, I mean I sometime wish I had yelled at my dad, told him to pay more attention to me, Lila is stronger than I am in that respect, but I had still had my mom.”

Steve wanted to apologize for a lot of things, he wanted to mostly make sure that his husband was alright. “If you could go back and tell him off would you?”

“I don’t think I would, I mean I hate that I went through so much of what I went through over the years but in the end,” Tony said looking at him as if he knew that the answer wouldn’t change who they were. “I think if I had to do it again, I would because it’s led me to this point, it led me to you and the Avengers, and our kids.”

Grabbing him and pulling him into his arms, Steve knew that this was why he survived being in the ice for seventy years, this life right here, “I love you,” he said kissing Tony’s temple.

“I love you too,” Tony said holding Steve as tight as he possibly could. “Would you change anything if you could?” he asked knowing how much pain Steve had gone through, even if Steve thought about it, going through the whole man out of time thing, he wouldn’t change anything either.

“Not really,” he said smiling. “I have you, our kids, our home, yes I lost a lot, but I think I did pretty well here, even with everything that’s happened,” the everything had been the thing that’s been hanging over their heads for the last five years, their one biggest failure, the one thing that had cost them more than anyone could ever imagine.

They stayed there in each other’s arms for another few minutes before venturing back towards the communal area, where Nebula and Bruce talked in hushed words, while looking over at Thor, who had let his own regrets manifest in other ways. Depression was something that all the Avengers were familiar with, they all dealt with it in their own ways, but for Thor, who had lost so much even before the snap, it had gotten to him even more.

“You know,” Tony whispered into Steve’s ear, “I wasn’t sure of it before, but I’m almost certain that Nebula, Valkyrie, Bruce and Thor are in a relationship with one another.”

Someone behind them snorted out something, as something splashing onto the ground right behind Tony’s feet, Steve turned and saw Clint drinking juice from the carton, something Tony hates with a passion. Clint was looking at them all wide eyed, while holding Lila to his chest, covering her other ear.

“No,” Steve said before Clint could say anything. “We’re not getting into that.”

“But,” Clint said, and it looked to Steve like the conversation with his daughter had helped him a little.

“No,” he said before pulling Tony further into the room. “We’re not having this conversation, whatever they do in their personal time is up to them and if they want to tell us they will.”

“You know I wouldn’t have said anything if I had known someone would have heard about it,” Tony told him before they sat down at the table.

“I know, and while I sometimes think about it, it’s up to them to tell us,” Steve said before settling into the chair next to him. “For now, I’m just worried about Thor, he’s been drinking beer almost nonstop since he got here.”

“I doubt it’s doing anything to him, with that Asgardian metabolism, but I understand why he’s coping like that, I did the same thing, maybe after all of this is over, we can talk to him about it.”

“Are you suggesting that we have an intervention with a God,” Natasha said as she slid into one of the seats across from them. “Because if we are, then all of the Avengers are going to need some kind of therapy.”

“Not all of us,” Tony said pouting, which Steve thought was adorable, even with the heaviness of the subject at hand.

“She’s right Tony, it will be healthy for all of us to get through this by talking, maybe Sam could do it if this time travel heist works,” Steve said while slowly rubbing circles around Tony’s back. Tony who was still pouting leaned into his touch.

Bruce was the next to join them, pulling Nebula with him, “I’m for us doing something now,” he said staring at all of them. “I’ve been trying for a while, he’s been getting deeper into his depression, especially since New Asgard isn’t the same as the old. He’s lived a long life so the last ten years, he’s lost everyone he cared about, his family is completely gone, the whole thing with Thanos was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

“Agreed,” Nebula said as if that was the only thing she needed to say, Steve looked over at her, never really sure if she would say something more, and sometimes afraid to ask her to elaborate, especially since she’s threatened him with bodily harm on more than one occasion, especially when it comes to Tony. He also wasn’t sure if her agreeing was confirming Tony’s theory about her relationship with the others, but again, disembowelment is not on his agenda for the day.

“So, how do we do this,” Tony said next to him, keeping Steve from making a horrible mistake and actually saying what was on his mind. Living with four kids made him honest, maybe too honest.

“Thor,” Nebula called out without giving them the option to think about this further. She motioned for the god to join them, Rhodes walking in with bags of food, Carol behind him with several boxes of Pizza.

“Oh, look an audience,” Bruce said with a half cheery voice, the man had been making jokes lately and acting differently, but Steve realized that it’s what happened when someone was exposed to Tony for a long time. Bruce looked more relaxed around them, and Steve realized it was really because the man was more at peace than he had been in the past.

The group convened around the table, as food was handed out but no one said a thing about what they had been discussing, Steve and Tony shared a look with one another about the whole situation, but they didn’t know how to bring it up until Thor opened a bottle of liquor in front of them.

“Thor,” Tony said stopping the other man from taking his drink, “You’ve been going a little heavy there with the booze.”

The man had not tact when it came to certain things, but Steve knew that this was Tony’s way for bringing the conversation forward before everyone decided to step back. Steve knew that Tony was one of the best people for this conversation, the man had battled addiction on and off for years, it was something that they discussed in detail especially after the kids came into their lives, because the one thing Tony hadn’t wanted was to be like his father in that respect. They had banned alcohol from the house because of it, only buying beer when they had get togethers with their friends and family.

Bruce on the other hand just hit himself with the palm of his hand as if this was the worse way to bring it up. Instead he sighed and looked over at Thor, “Listen Thor, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about this.”

“It’s just a drink my friends,” Thor said but Bruce just shook his head at the comment.

“It’s not really just a drink Thor,” Bruce said turning to the other man and looking him directly in the eyes. “I get that you’ve been in a rough spot, okay, I’ve been there myself, as I’m sure we’ve all had.”

“Then don’t talk of it,” Thor said averting his eyes from them all.

“Thor, you’ve lost a lot in the last few years,” Tony said next, “We’ve all lost a lot, but we’re here for you.”

“You don’t know what loss is,” Thor said, and Steve saw the moment where even Thor realized that he was wrong, the moment when Tony flinched, because he had lost more than most of them had.

Before Tony could say anything, Bruce grabbed Thor’s face and made the man focus on him. “Thor, you’ve helped me out of what I had gone through more time than I can count, you’ve always helped me. You’ve encouraged my relationship with the Hulk, you helped me.”

“Why don’t you ask all of the Asgardians how much my help was worth, the ones that are left, anyway, because honestly I don’t think my help was worth much,” Thor looked close to tears, and they all saw that he was trying to pull away, but Bruce held firm.

“No,” Bruce said to him. “No more pity, we’re going to try this, we’re going to bring them back.”

“Stop. Just, stop...” Thor said pulling away slamming the bottle down on the table, “I know you think I'm down here wallowing in my own self-pity, waiting to be rescued and and saved. But I'm fine, okay? We're fine, aren't we?”

“We’re not fine,” Steve said looking at not just Thor but at every one of them. “Thor we’ve all suffered a lot, you more than most, but we want to get there, we want to try and fix all of this, if it means going back in time and finding the stones we will,” he didn’t know if the words were worth it, but it was the only thing he had at the moment. “We will get you your families back, your people, our lives, no matter what, because they all deserve a chance, we all deserve a chance.”

Thor was quiet for a moment, before he began to cry, Bruce pulling him away from the table, Steve not really sure if his words were worth the effort, he tried and it was all he could do.

“He’ll be alright,” Valkyrie said next to Nebula. “He needs to let out everything he has inside of himself, everything he’s been holding back. So, this was actually good for him.”

They ate in silence after that, it wasn’t until later, when Thor had come back that they saw just how much he cared for their opinion. “You’re the only family I have left,” Thor had said sadness in his eyes, “I am afraid of losing you all as well, Asgardians live very long lives, and after everything that had happened, I realized just how much it would hurt me to lose you all as well.”

“We just want you to take better care of yourself,” Bruce said to him. “We don’t want you to hurt anymore, because when you’re in pain, we all are.”

“Like you said,” Steve added, “We’re family, and in families we take care of one another, because what use are, we if you continue to hurt yourself just because we couldn’t stop Thanos. We all suffered Thor, but this is why we’re here, we’re going to try to fix everything, including ourselves.”

“It’ll just take some time,” Tony said with a smile.

The rest of the dinner was a quiet affair, everyone sticking to regular conversations, no one really talking about the plan, or anything too heavy. About half way through Clint asked the one question that was on all of their minds, and Nebula threw an apple at him, hitting him a little too hard in the chest, which only made Tony laugh. The truth was, that Nebula and Valkyrie had a weird kind of relationship, one that no one dared ask more of from fear of losing a limb or two, and Bruce and Thor had a relationship of a sort, but it was their private business and no one else’s, though they could all see that the four also had something else going on altogether, but no one dared ask another question fearing Nebula’s knives, which Tony had given her, both of which were made of the same metal that made up her arm, and Steve’s shield, Thor’s hammer which had been scary before but with the axe on the other end was now downright scary, Valkyrie’s sword, or even the Hulk’s rage.

Tony didn’t really care what the four of them did, he cared more about Thor’s mental state, because while they all dealt with the fallout of the decimation their own way, Thor’s way of dealing reminded Tony more of how he had dealt with his parents’ deaths when he was twenty-one. He wanted to make sure that Thor didn’t end up going down that route, and if the other three kept close to him, and helped him, it didn’t matter how, as long as Thor knew that there were people there for him that was all that really mattered.

* * *

 

In the days it took for them to work on the machine that would essentially take them through time, Tony found himself keeping an eye on Thor, who while still drank, had actually slowed down. Thor was standing in front of him in a hoodie and sweats watching as Rocket worked on the machine with Bruce in the background talking with Scott. There was a fondness in Thor’s eyes when he looked over at Bruce, who had worked the last few days on several calculations with all the data they had.

“How’s it going Ratchet?” Tony said walking into the room, patting Thor on the back as he passed the god.

“It’s Rocket,” the raccoon said which only made Tony smile, it was a little fun when no one understood his pop culture references. “Take it easy, you’re only a genius on Earth, pal.”

“Yup,” was the only thing he said back before getting into the machine itself. He could automatically feel Steve’s presence as he walked into the room. They were so attuned to one another that it was instinct when the other one came in. “Hey,” he said as Steve kissed him on the cheek.

“I’m going to go help them,” Steve said pointing at the others on the far end of the Testing chamber. “Before the Hulk decides to put in an appearance because Scott did the wrong thing.”

“Okay, but remember the kids are all coming over for dinner, so we all have to stop before they come over, I don’t want them messing with anything,” Tony said, when they had started working on this project they all put time aside for the kids to come visit, a moment for all of them to not have to think about what they were about to try and pull off.

“You act like we’ve never done this before,” Steve said it as a joke, because Tony knows the last time that they had tried to do something before the kids got back, they had almost gotten caught with their literal pants down.

“Yeah well we didn’t get away with it completely last time either,” Tony said to him before pulling him down for a kiss. “This is different though.”

“Would you two quit it,” Rocket said to them reminding them that they had an audience. “We got work to do.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Tony said before getting back into the guts of the machine.

There was something about watching Tony work, on anything at all, whether it was a machine or even cooking dinner for the family, that made Steve happy. He knew that Tony was always at his happiest when he had a project that excited him, especially if it was something that he could share with others. Steve knew that Tony looked at him the same way when he had his own projects, but Steve knew the differences, mainly because he liked watching Tony get dirty even more than seeing the man in a three-piece suit.

“Time travel suit?” Rhodes said as Steve walked over to join the others. Steve saw the suit that Scott was wearing, it was designed by Tony, using the same nano particles as Tony’s Iron Man suit, so that they would be able to change into any outfit that would be needed where they were going. It was durable, but it also conformed to the suits that they all normally wore. “Not bad, though the color could be different.”

“Hey,” Tony yelled out from across the room. “You want to come over here and say that to my face.”

“No worries Tony, I’ll let it slide since we have a time limit,” Rhodey yelled back, but Tony’s response was muffled, as the genius went back to work.

“You really shouldn’t get him all worked up,” Bruce said as he touched the suit Scott was wearing.

“Hey, hey, hey. Easy, easy,” Scott said pulling back a little.

“I’m being very careful,” Bruce said inspecting a red tube on the suit.

“No, you’re being very Hulky,” Scott replied, and if anyone else hadn’t known that Bruce was the Hulk, they would have thought it was a joke.

“I’m being careful,” Bruce said, but they all watched to see if there was a hint of green in his eyes, but there wasn’t. Bruce was very proud of the fact that him and the Hulk had learned to coexist with one another, and it showed more and more.

There had been a moment the other night where the Hulk had been walking around, but they had stayed away, mostly because the Hulk was talking with Thor while the other man cried. Tony had pulled him away not wanting to intrude, but something must have happened because Thor had been quiet the next day.

Scott held up the vial that had been strapped onto the suit, “These are Pym Particles, alright? And ever since Hank Pym got snapped out of existence, this is it. This is what we have. We’re not making any more.”

“Scott calm down,” Hope said next to him.

“Sorry,” he said holding onto to her hand for a moment, “We’ve got enough for one round trip each, that’s it. No do-overs. Plus, two test runs,” his hand accidentally pressed a botton on the suit activating the particle and shrinks down, Hope sighing next to him before he grows back to his normal size. “Okay one test run.”

“This is why I told you to calm down,” she said before taking the last vial off the suit before he could make another mistake. “We’re all under pressure right now, and you tend to freak out a little when there’s too much happening at once.”

“I do not,” he said in his own defense.

“Really, remember when we pulled you out of your house because you spoke with my mom, and you worked hard yes, but at the same time you were freaking out about being at home in time before the Marshals came and you ended up in back in the raft, but we got you back in time, no problem.”

“Well I had a right to freak out, I wouldn’t have been able to see you or Cassie, and I didn’t want to go back to jail, I had just gotten my life back together.”

“I know, but now is not the time to have a mini crisis, right now is the time to be the man I know you are and work with us to find a way to fix this.”

“Okay,” he said before turning back to the group. “Sorry Bruce, for you know.”

“It’s no problem, we’re all under the same amount of pressure right now, so don’t worry so much, but if we only have one chance at a test run, who should we send?” Bruce asked knowing that this was going to be their one shot to make sure the machine worked, if not they would have to pare down the teams, even though they were already pushing it with the amount of people going.

“I would do it, but I’m honestly not ready for it,” Scott said looking out at the group. “I don’t know if I can do it without messing something up.”

It was understandable to them all, Scott wasn’t ready for the pressure that would come from going back, he wasn’t ready to know if he would be able to do so without messing something up. None of them were prepared for the consequences of what would happen if they messed up so early into testing the machine.

“I’m game,” Clint who had been sitting at the other end of the table messaging his kids answered them. “I’ll do it, I need to make amends for messing up my kids’ lives because I couldn’t let go enough to take care of them.”

“We’ll get you your suit, but remember you can’t change anything at all,” Bruce said to him, and they all knew the reason was because if Clint so much as changes something it could have repercussions for them all.

“I’ll try my best,” Clint said before walking out of the room to get the suit. Shuri had been the one working with Tony’s nano tech to make the suits a reality, Tony have given her most of the notes in regards to the suits so that she could adjust them to what they needed.

The machine was done right as Clint arrived wearing the suit, his hair pushed back, but they could all see the worried look on the guy’s face. They weren’t sure if any of this was going to work, and Clint getting stuck in the past, or wherever the machine left him was going to be horrible on so many levels. Everyone had come to the room to see if it would work, Shuri leaving her lab, Thor sitting in a corner with Nebula and Valkyrie, Carol standing next to Rhodey, while Tony stood next to Steve. Bruce at the machine adjusting everything they had worked on, while watching the people in the room.

“Are you okay?” Natasha asked Clint as he ran his hand through his hair.

“Yeah, it’s just... Nat I have to prepare myself for this, because if I see Laura, I don’t know what I would do,” he said and they all knew it was something any of them would have struggled with if they were in his shoes. “Let's just get this over with,” Clint said looking at all of the people who had gathered around them.

Bruce nodded from behind the console, “Clint, now you’re gonna feel a little discombobulated from the chronoshift,” he said as Clint took his place on the platform. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Wai-Wait a second,” Rhodey said interrupting them. “I have to ask you something.”

It was Tony rolling his eyes that go Steve’s attention, “No honeybear, just no,” Tony said but Rhodey ignored him, and continued his train of thought.

“If we can do this, you know go back in time, why don’t we just find baby Thanos, you know, and...” Rhodey made as if he were suggesting that they go back in time and strangle baby Thanos with a rope.

Bruce looked over at the other man disgusted at what he was suggesting. “First of all, that’s horrible...”

“It’s Thanos,” Rhodey said and Tony snorted next to Steve.

“...And secondly,” Bruce continued before Tony could say anything. “Time doesn’t work that way. Changing the past doesn’t change the future.”

“Wouldn’t it though?” Steve asked, wondering what they were getting themselves into if they couldn’t change the present by changing the past.

“Most likely no, it would just create an alternate timeline, and that timeline wouldn’t have to deal with Thanos, it wouldn’t change our past at all,” Bruce answered.

“What if someone here used the stones and decided to change everything, what would happen then?” Shuri asked the room, which was now silent as they thought about what they were attempting.

“Our future probably wouldn’t exist,” Bruce said to them all.

“Look, we go back, we get the stones before Thanos gets them... Thanos doesn't have the stones. Problem solved,” Scott said to them.

“Bingo,” Clint added, both of them on the same wavelength.

“That’s not how it works,” Nebula said, her voice echoing around the room.

“Well, I thought that’s what we were doing,” Clint said, which was what they all thought that they were doing.

“What?” Bruce asked. “By who? Who told you that?

“Star Trek,” Rhodey said before counting off movies. “Terminator, TimeCop, Time After Time -”

“Oh god it’s like Peter got in his head,” Tony said rolling his eyes.

“Quantum Leap,” Scott added.

“A Wrinkle in Time, somewhere in time,” Rhodey continued.

“Hot Tub Time Machine,” Scott said.

“Hot Tub Time Machine, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Basically, any movie that deals with time travel.”

“Wasn’t there a guy in Hot Tub Time Machine that looked like the Winter Soldier,” Clint said making everyone stop and look at him. “What, you know I’m right, hell I’m sure if we gave the guy Barnes’ haircut it would be an exact replica.”

“Anyway,” Tony said stopping Clint from going on a rant about how there’s an actor that looked almost exactly like all of them.

“This is known,” Rhodey said before Tony could say anything else.

“I don't know why everyone believes that, but that isn't true,” Bruce said turning the conversation back to what they were doing. “Think about it: If you travel to the past, that past becomes your future. And your former present becomes the past. Which can't now be changed by your new future...”

“Exactly,” Nebula said in the way they had known her to be, short answers and to the point. Tony had once told Steve that it was just the way she was, she hadn’t had the chance to have actual conversations with people until recently, and when she was on mission for anything she wanted to get straight to the point so that they couldn’t deviate from their objective.

“So,” Scott said looking at the group. “Does that mean that Back to the Future’s a bunch of bullshit?”

Everyone in the room groaned at Scott’s question, none of them wanting to answer, instead Bruce turned to Clint and pointed at the platform, indicating that he should get going before they diverged into something in even more ridiculous.

“You won’t be there for long, for us it’ll be seconds, for you probably a few minutes,” Bruce explained as he started adjusting the console, Shuri standing next to him, while Scott gave Clint a thumbs up. “Don’t change anything, you’re only going to be there to observe, may grab something to see if you can bring it back with you.”

“Can it be anything, or should I grab something specific?” Clint asked.

“Anything small would do,” Tony said while Bruce nodded.

“Alright, Clint, we’re going in 3... 2... 1!” Bruce said as Clint vanished in front of them.

It had been barely a few seconds before Clint rematerialized on the glass platform, he was panting, his hands on his knees before he buckled and hit the glass panels on the ground. Natasha was the first to get to Clint while the rest of them hovered over them.

“Hey, hey. Look at me. You okay?” she asked him as Clint held up a baseball glove.

“Yeah,” he said a smile on his face. “it worked Nat, it really worked.”

* * *

 

They needed a plan, which was something Steve was good at, Tony knew this, but trying to make the plan work was an entirely different thing, they needed to figure out where the six stones were, and what time would be the best time to go and get them. They needed to make sure the teams that were going would have someone here to make sure that they would come back. They also needed to make sure that Earth was protected while they were all gone, these were all the variables that Tony was working through in his head. All the while he was thinking about his kids, his life, and just how much was going to change in such a short amount of time.

“Don’t think about it too much,” Steve told him as they set themselves up in the conference room, they were going to brainstorm until the kids arrived for dinner.

“It’s a lot to think about,” he said to his husband. “We can’t mess it up or those timelines would be changed, like Bruce said their past would become our present, we don’t know just what we’re getting ourselves into.”

“We know that, but for now we just have to go into this with the knowledge that we won’t change anything, because if we start thinking that we’re going to mess up then we will, and we can’t go into this with that mentality.”

“You hang out around me too much, because you’re starting to sound like a smart person... I don’t like that, go be the artist you are, because if you become rational then I’ll have to actually eat my vegetables and be responsible, and I don’t want that.”

“You should still eat your vegetables, because if you do Morgan will eat hers and then I wouldn’t have so many problems trying to get her to eat healthy.”

“Well there you go again,” Tony said before sighing and putting his head on Steve’s chest. “I just don’t want to mess this up.”

“I know, and we’ll try our best,” Steve told him before pulling away and kissing him. “Now let's do this and when the kids come over, we’ll watch a movie and ignore the fact that tomorrow morning while they’re in bed, we’ll be attempting to change the universe.”

“Yeah sure,” Tony said before they both watched the displays light up.

“Okay, so the "how" works,” Steve said to the room of mostly superpowered people. “Now we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost all of us has had an encounter with at least one of the six infinity stones.”

Tony lit up the first hologram with the image of the stones that he had seen when he had first met the wizards. “Well I'd substitute the word encounter for damn well near been killed by one of the six infinity stones.”

“I haven't,” Scott said raising his hand. “I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about.”

“I’m pretty sure out of all of us, you, Hope, and Shuri are the only ones who haven’t been near one,” Steve said to them. “The rest of us have in one way or another.”

“Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round trip each for only a handful of us,” Bruce said bringing forth their other problem. “And these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history.”

“Our history, so there’s not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in,” Tony said as he started pulling up dates and locations from each encounter.

“Which means we have to pick our targets,” Clint said looking at them, for Clint the mind stone had fucked with him enough that Tony didn’t want Clint near their first battle together, he could only imagine what the man would do if he encountered Loki again.

“Correct,” Shuri said as she looked through all of the stones on display.

“Let’s start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?” Steve said getting straight to work.

Thor was on the other side of the room quiet his body slack, “Is he asleep?” Natasha asked.

“No, I’m pretty sure he’s dead,” Rhodey added.

“Sorry,” Bruce said getting up, “We stayed up last night talking, and then the Hulk talked to him, so it was a little emotional.” Bruce made his way over to Thor and gently shook his away, “Thor, time to get up.”

The blond got startled for a moment before his eyes came into awareness. “I apologize,” he said looking at the center holoscreen.

“The Aether,” Shuri said motioning towards the display. “Tell us about it.”

“Where should I start?” he said as he sat up and looked at the stone. “The Aether, first, is not a stone, someone called it a stone before. It's more of a... and angry sludge thing, so... someones gonna need to amend that. It’s also known as the reality stone, it has the ability to manipulate reality as it stands. Anyway, here's an interesting story though, many years ago...My grandfather had to hide the stones from the Dark Elves...” he started wiggling his fingers as if he were a ghost. “Wooooh, scary beings. So, Jane, Oh, there she is. That's Jane... She's... an old flame of mine...” he said as a picture of his exgirlfriend appeared on screen. “She... she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time... and then the Aether stuck itself inside her... And, she became very, very sick. So, I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from. And we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see. I got to introduce her to my Mother... who's dead...”

Thor stopped for a moment, he hadn’t broken down when the image of Jane appeared, but the moment his mother had been mentioned, Tony could see the hurt in the man’s eyes. Bruce gently rubbed Thor’s back trying to make certain that the god didn’t break down before he finished.

“Oh, you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, these things happen though you know, nothing last forever,” he said as a way to move away from thinking about his mother’s death. As Bruce makes sure that he stays seated. “I'm not done yet, the only thing permanent in life is impermanence,” Thor finished but Bruce just stayed put, making sure that the god would be alright.

“Maybe there’s somethings that are more permanent than others,” Bruce told him. “We’re all here, we all care about you.”

“Anyway, let’s get some snacks in here,” Tony said trying to keep the moment that Bruce and Thor were having between the two of them.

“I would like that, thank you,” Thor said to him.

They moved from their spaces and gathered snacks, Tony went to the fridge in search of some blueberries, because if Steve was going to force the healthy stuff on him, then he was going to have something he liked. Shuri set up the next stone on the screen, a bag of treats already in front of her. Tony walked over and sat down next to her, placing some fruits in front of her as well.

“Thanks,” she said smiling at him.

“No problem,” he told her, it was the least he could do at the moment, since she had been working on the suits mostly on her own.

The purple power stone floated in front of them, almost like it was taunting Tony, it had been the same stone that had forced a moon onto him during the fight with Thanos. He had seen its power first hand, as well as the power of the other stone’s in the madman’s possession.

“Quill said he stole the power stone from Morage,” Rocket said as he sat on the table.

Scott raised his hand like they were in a classroom taking notes which was weird on it’s own. “Is that a person?”

“Morag’s a planet, it’s located in the Andromeda Galaxy at the Eclipsing Binary Star, it’s mostly oceanic, and they have these little annoying rodents that get into everything,” Rocket answered Scott, which only made Tony curious because there was so much out there that he could study. “Quill is a person,” he said as an afterthought.

“Wait, when you say a planet, you mean like in outer space?” Scott asked his eyes wide which only gave Rocket an opening to mock the man.

“Oh, look. It’s like a little puppy, all happy and everything,” he said before making his voice sound like he’s talking to a puppy, “Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I’ll get you to space.”

Hope laughed from next to Scott before holding back the man so that he wouldn’t go after Rocket. Instead, Nebula cleared her throat and pushed them to the next stone, she clearly wasn’t in the mood for Rocket’s antics. She moved the soul stone forward, and Tony could see just a hint of sadness in her eyes.

“Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir,” she said never looking at anyone in the room, the stone floating around in front of her was the only thing holding her attention.

“What is Vormir?” Natasha asked, her voice in full business mode as she took notes on everything they were saying.

“A dominion of death,” Nebula said the stone still holding her attention. “at the very center of Celestial existence. It's where... Thanos murdered my sister.”

“Noted,” Scott said, and Tony threw a blueberry at him.

Tony more than any of them, other than Rocket, knew the severity of Nebula’s loss, her sister was her only family outside of a murderous titan, losing her cost Nebula everything she cared for. The Avengers adopted her, but Tony made sure she didn’t have too many bad memories since, Valkyrie, Bruce and Thor helped whenever she visited New Asgard, but Tony was always the first one to greet her whenever she came back to earth. Even setting up one of those intergalactic video screens at home so she could call him whenever she wanted. They were a family now and he was going to protect her as much as he could.

An hour later, they were all laying around the room, no one moving as they all thought about the other three stones that they needed to locate, they knew that they would have to go back to the day the Avengers first formed, but they also had to figure out the time stone as well. Both Tony and Natasha were lying on the table, papers scattered all around them, Bruce on the floor Thor soundly sleeping on his lap, Steve was off making dinner for when the kids arrived, Shuri was with Scott and Hope adjusting the suits, while Rhodey and Carol went off on a walk. Nebula had disappeared, and Tony was certain that Rocket was making a bomb outside.

“That Time Stone guy....” Natasha said breaking the silence in the room.

“Doctor Strange,” Bruce said to her.

“Yeah, what kind of doctor was he?” she asked them and while Tony knew the answer was buried somewhere in his brain he wasn’t entirely sure.

“Neurostuff meets rabbit from a hat,” he said staring at the ceiling. “He had a nice place in the village though.”

“Yeah... Sullivan Street... hmmm... Bleecker,” Bruce said to them as if it would help.

“Wait,” Natasha sat up and looked at both of them. “He lived in New York?”

“No, he lived in Toronto,” Tony said sarcastically, which only earned him a glare from Natasha.

“Anyway,” she said turning to Bruce. “Guys, if you pick the right year, there are three stones in New York.”

“Shut the front door,” Bruce said startling Thor out of his nap, the god smacking his head on the table. “Sorry Thor... sorry,” he murmured

* * *

 

“Did you guys figure it out?” Steve asked him when he walked into the kitchen. The smell of mac and cheese in the air, which meant that Steve was nervous and a nervous Steve starts baking everything he could.

“Yeah we did,” Tony said as he wrapped his arms around him. “We found out that there are three stones in New York during the invasion back in 2012.”

“I guess that’s where we’re going isn’t it?”

“Yeah, you and me, along with Scott and Bruce, because a rampaging Hulk is easier to hide in plain sight.”

“Where’s everyone else going?”

“Thor and Rocket are going to get the Aether, Nat and Clint are going to get the soul stone, and Nebula, Rhodey, and Carol are going to get the power stone.”

“Those are good teams, hopefully this will go the way it should,” Steve said to him before pulling a casserole pan out of the oven. 

“So, how big is this army we’re feeding?”

“Very funny Tony, but with our kids, Clint’s kids, Pepper and Happy, as well as all of the other Avengers, we basically have a family to feed, and I want everyone to be full and happy before we head out tomorrow.”

Tony nodded his head before looking around the room, “Have you seen Vision?”

“Not really, he wasn’t at any of the meetings, which was strange, I’m not sure where he is.”

“FRIDAY,” Tony called out.

“Boss, Vision has been in the lab with Shuri, they’ve been working on fixing something in his neuropathways.”

“Why,” he asked while trying to take a bite out of the food on the counter, before Steve hit his hand.

“Vision has stated that he would like to use the powers that he had lost,” Friday said to them. “He wants to be of use if another battle should arise.”

Tony was quiet for a moment, and Steve knew that he was thinking about whether there would be another fight, there was so much that they hadn’t thought about, especially if they brought everyone back, because they would also bring back any enemies that they may have made over the years. Before they could have a conversation about it the loud giddy scream came from the hallway as their youngest daughter came barreling into the compound’s kitchen.

“Daddy,” she yelled as her screeching sneakers came looking for them, “Papa,” she called out and Tony groaned.

“I’m burning those shoes,” he said, and Steve couldn’t help the smile on his face.

Morgan Stark-Rogers' favorite pair of shoes were light up sneakers, they were cheap, and if Tony had his way they’d be in the trash just because they made what Tony dubbed and unholy screeching sound. The shoes were never thrown out, even with the threat constantly being made, but it was one of those things that Tony endured for his family, just like Steve’s need to draw in the lab, even though he had a studio. Miles’ need to tag up half of New York, even though Tony would have to pay the fines. Riri’s weird obsession with making her father into an A.I., which Tony found creepy and weird, but didn’t stop her. And Kamala’s need to follow Carol and Rhodey around like they were her gods, because Tony hadn’t expected to not be his kid’s favorite anything.

Steve kissed his husband just as a five-year-old Morgan rushed towards them, nearly toppling them over, because as small as she was, she knew exactly where to hit to bring everyone to their level.

“There’s my little girl,” Steve said to her as he picked her up. “Where are your siblings, they were supposed to be with you.”

“We’re here,” Miles said plopping himself down on the ground. “She’s faster than she looks and I have superpowers.”

“She’s a superstar this one,” Tony said smiling at his little girl.

“Yeah well next time, I’m putting one of those kid tether things on her,” Miles looked up at his parents and smiled. “She’s too all over the place.”

“Yeah well, she’s five, what's your excuse?” Riri said as she walked in Kamala, Pepper and Happy right behind.

“I’m not all over the place,” Miles said defending himself.

“Yeah that’s a lie, I saw like three of your tags all over campus, and it was my school’s campus,” Kamala said, and Miles just glared at her.

“It’s not really a secret Miles’, I have FRIDAY alert me when you break the law,” Tony said, while Steve tried and failed at laughing out loud about Miles getting caught. “Hey Pepper.”

“Hey there, you two, how’s everything going,” she asked them, which meant that she knew what they were up to. Steve looked at Tony as if he had given out their secret.

“Yeah you try and keep something from her,” he said with a smile. “Now everyone go wash up for dinner and make sure you drag the rest of the Avengers with you on your way back.”

“Wait they’re here,” Kamala said sprinting out of the room, most likely in a rush to find her godparents.

“No loyalty with that one,” Tony said to Steve before walking over to Pepper and giving her a kiss on the cheek. “I’m going to go find the rest of them.”

Pepper nodded and then walked over to Steve, when the two of them were left alone, he knew he was in for something. “You’re going to travel through time,” she said as a fact and not a question.

“How much did Tony tell you?”

“Enough, I just want to make sure that you take care of each other if you’re going to do this,” she told him. “I don’t want something to happen to either of you, it would devastate those kids, but I also know how badly either of you would take it.”

He knew she was right about that, especially since the last time they had a huge fight it felt more like a divorce than anything, and they hadn’t been together at that time. Since then they built a family, rebuilt their lives and their relationship, losing Tony would be like being thrown seventy years in the future all over again, and he didn’t think that he could deal with that and survive.

“I’ll make sure we both get back, alive and well,” he said to her, it was more of a promise to himself than to anyone else.

“Good,” she said smiling at him. “Now let’s go eat some dinner, so you and Tony can have your time with your kids.”

“Have you and Happy ever thought about having your own?” he asked curious since they hadn’t had a kid, but dotted on Morgan like she were her own.

“We’ve talked, and I talked to Tony about taking some time off,” she said smiling. “Who knows maybe after you guys come back we can talk about it more.”

Steve couldn’t help but smile, it was good to hear that even Pepper was thinking of the future, even when he was afraid of telling her that that future might not be real, they don’t know the outcome of the mission they were about to embark on, and he knew more than anything how worried Tony was about everything.

Dinner that night had been a loud and rowdy affair, mainly because they had a full house of people, friends and family alike. Tony was worried, Steve knew this because he felt the same way. They had both put a picture of their family in their suits, close to their hearts, because they needed the reminder of why they were trying to do this. Tony needed to bring back Peter for May Parker, Steve wanted Sam and Bucky back. Shuri, Hope, and Nebula wanted their families back, Natasha wanted her second chance with the man who had gotten away. Thor wanted to write a wrong, and Clint just wanted his wife back, as for everyone else, they were fighting for the family they had built together and lost at the same time. There was no turning back, not for any of them, they had invested their time into making this happen, and they were going to make sure nothing went wrong.

* * *

 

When morning came, and Tony could only feel Steve behind him on the bed all he could realizes was that this was it, either they fixed everything, or they lost for good. He wanted this moment for himself just for a moment, because somewhere out there, there was a universe where they weren’t together. Just the thought of losing that, losing what he had was enough to make him turn around burrow himself further into Steve embrace.

“I’m scared too,” Steve said to him, while running his hands up and down Tony’s back, it was something they did when one of them had a nightmare, something to remind them of the present.

“Just don’t die out there,” Tony said, it had been hard enough saying bye to the kids the night before, but the thought of not just losing them but Steve as well was weighing down on him and he felt like he was drowning even though he was on solid ground.

“I promise, I will do everything in my power to make sure that we come back,” Steve said as he held Tony tighter. “I don’t want to lose you, or anyone in our little family.”

Somewhere in the compound, Tony knew that there were other couples having the same conversation, they were all on a preverbal suicide mission. They all had people who loved them and cared for their safety, Tony wasn’t sure if he would survive if something happened to any of them. They were his family, the one built from scraps. Losing wasn’t an option, not anymore, because they had already lost, and once had been enough for all of them.

They all got ready for the day, eating breakfast, talking like they weren’t about to do something incredibly stupid, before they ended up sitting in the conference room, Tony watched the holographic displays, the stones displayed along with their times and locations, each team under a stone. The biggest team going out there was Tony and Steve’s because they needed to get three of the stones, and one screw up would end this mission before it began. They couldn’t fault themselves if something went wrong, they had to get in and get out, and when the stones needed to get back to their time, that person was responsible for it landing in the right place at the right time.

“All right Avengers,” Steve said standing in front of the display, “We have a plan. Six stones, three teams. One shot.”

“Everyone get ready for a wild ride,” Tony said trying to make himself feel a little better about what they were about to do.

The moment they all walked off and got into the suits though, he could feel his hands shaking, even having Shuri help mass produce the suits with the same nanoparticles that he had for his Iron Man suit, well it hadn’t helped. Yes, they would be protected, and yes, the particles could adjust to whatever they needed, but they wouldn’t be safe at home, and he could lose everything. Hell, he could get stuck somewhere in the Quantum Realm and never come back.

This is all on his mind as he walked next to Steve towards the Quantum Time machine, Tony looked at the team standing around him, Rhodey opting to have his suit look more like his War Machine Armor, Scott’s looks like the Ant-Man suit, the rest of them in a generic suit, which would change when they needed it to. He wanted them all protected, because in all of these timelines, Thanos still existed. He wanted his family to be safe no matter what, even if it meant creating suits for them that would protect them when they needed it most.

“Five years ago, we lost. All of us. We lost friends... We lost family... We lost a part of ourselves,” Steve said pulling Tony out of his thoughts. “Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams, you know your missions. Get the stones, get them back. One round trip each. No mistakes. No do-overs. Most of us are going somewhere we know. But it doesn't mean we should know what to expect.  Be careful. Look out for each other. This is the fight of our lives. And we're gonna win,” Tony couldn’t help but look at his husband, always with the speeches, it made his heart race, he wanted to kiss the man for luck. “Whatever it takes. Good luck.”

“He's pretty good at that,” Rocket said with a smirk.

“Right?” Scott answered a little too excited now, but that’s what Steve did when he gave those speeches.

“All right. You heard my man,” Tony said before turning to Steve and planting a kiss on his lips. “When we get back, we’re going back to our room and having words,” he whispered to Steve with a wink before turning to Shuri, “Hit those keys Shuri.”

Shuri nodded at them, “Tractors engaged.”

“You promise to bring that back in one piece, right?” Rocket said to Clint who was holding the shrunken down Benatar in his hand.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I'll do my best,” Clint said as he kissed a picture of his kids and put it into the suit.

“As promises go, that was pretty lame,” Rocket said back before turning towards the rest of them.

“See you in a minute,” Natasha smiled at them just as they all shrank down into the Quantum Realm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up Next.... My Doctor Potts and Captain Stevens wishful thinking....


	6. Doctor Potts and Captain Stevens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> April 7, 1970

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be short..... it kind of got away from me

He tried really hard not to throw up from the whole Quantum leap that they had just done, but everything came out anyway, right onto the rubble from the Battle of Manhattan, while the Avengers fought the Chitari in the background. 

“Sorry,” he said to Steve who was rubbing his back as Bruce handed him a bottle of water he had gotten from an overturned hot dog cart. 

“I warn you all that it would feel strange,” Bruce said as Tony spit water onto the ground.  

“Do you think that we could get a move on,” Scott said looking around at the destruction around them. “There’s a lot happening and I really don’t want one of those leviathan things falling on me.” 

“You think that’s bad try going through one,” Bruce said looking pointily at Tony as he dry heaved, the taste of vomit still in his mouth even with the rinse. 

“Seriously you went through one of them,” Scott said as they heard the Hulk rawr in the background. “What did you just want them to eat you or something?” 

“I was doing a thing,” Tony said as he slowly rose from the ground, the queasy feeling slowly abating, but he wished he had a mint or something because his mouth felt horrible. “The tale of Jonah.” 

“Right,” Scott said, “And here I thought you were the smart one.” 

“Funny Scott, real funny,” Tony said but just turned to Steve, ignoring the incredible shrinking man behind him. “Okay what now?” 

“We have the mind stone and the tesseract at Stark Tower, and the time stone down on Bleecker,” Steve said as he turned on the commando that Tony loved so much. He really couldn’t wait to go back home and climb Steve like a tree. “The Hulk can make his way down there without anyone questioning why he’s fighting the Chitari, So, Bruce, the time stone is yours to get.” 

“That’s fine with me, less stress than what you three would have to do,” Bruce said before transforming into the Hulk. Tony still couldn’t get over the whole thing, even years later, watching Bruce change was an amazing thing to behold.  

The Hulk sat down for a minute as Steve explained to him what he needed to do, because even though they had told Bruce they always had to explain it to the Hulk as well. The mission was important, more important than anything they had ever done, but Bruce had used the last five years having others teach the Hulk, the big guy liked audio books and glass figurines, he also had his own place in New Asgard apart from Bruce’s place. It was interesting to know just how much the Hulk had evolved over the years, even when he hadn’t seen it all himself. 

“Now, I will get the mind stone,” Steve turned towards them, and while Tony knew that Steve hated his plan, it was the only one they had. “Scott you’re going to have to work with Tony to get the tesseract, his face is too recognizable, so you both have to work on getting a hold of the cube without bringing too much attention to yourselves.” 

“So, what's the plan?” Scott said turning towards Tony, excited as ever about the prospect of running an op with the Avengers.  

“The plan,” Tony said while giving Steve an apologetic look, “Is to essentially give me a heart attack.” 

“Wait what?” Scott looked at him dumbfounded by what he just said.  

“Listen the only way they’re going to be distracted enough for us to get that stone is for when they’re about to get it out of the building, we have this slight altercation with SHIELD over letting Thor have it while they’re all in the lobby, that’s the only time we’ll be able to get it. Especially if my other self is having a slight heart attack, which would be caused by the reactor, that had been in my chest at the time, having a slight malfunction.” 

“You’re crazy, your fucking nuts,” Scott said and Tony could see the worried look in Steve’s eyes, but it was the only way and they both knew it. It was the perfect distraction, and no one would notice someone who looked a lot like Tony walking off with the stone, mainly because he would also be in SHIELD gear. 

“All right, we all have our assignments. Two stones uptown, one stone, down. Stay low. Keep an eye on the clock,” Steve said all the while Scott was mumbling about how nuts it was to give Tony a heart attack. 

“It’ll be fine Scott, Thor will be there, all he would have to do is give my other self a little jolt,” Tony said before turning to Steve and giving him a quick kiss. “Sorry about the vomit breath.” 

“Yeah but it’s worth it,” Steve smiled through the worried look on his face. “Hulk feel free to smash if things along the way.” 

With a nod the Hulk smashed a car, and jumped into the air to grab one of the Chitari flyers as they went by, taking him with it. “There he goes off on his own, it feels as if it were only yesterday when he was smashing the walls and bringing pain to his enemies,” Tony said as he watched him go. 

“Tony,” Steve said giving him that look of disapproval. 

“Yes Honey.” 

“Get to work,” Steve said pushing him forward. 

“Will do Rogers,” he smirked before activating the suit’s nanoparticles. “Get to it Tom Thumb, we don’t have all day.” 

Just as Scott shrunk down, giving Tony the finger, jumping onto the suit, the portal above them closed, and Tony saw his former self falling to the ground. He knew Steve felt guilt over closing the portal too soon, but all Tony could think about was that he wished that Steve had just kissed him that day. They would have saved themselves a whole lot of work to get to where they were now. He scanned the building a few minutes later, after the newly formed Avengers pulled Loki from the ruined penthouse floor, Clint’s bow pointed at the God of Mischief, and Tony knew that if they had given him the go-ahead Clint wouldn’t have hesitated to take the shot. Knowing now how close Thor was to his brother, it would have devastated him as much as losing his home had. 

“Got to hustle, Winghead,” Tony said as he watched them pack everything up. Tony couldn’t help but marvel at how much everything had changed since that moment. 

“Got it,” Steve’s voice came over the ear piece. “I’m approaching the elevator now.” 

Tony could hear them talking on the other side of the room, but his eyes were all on Steve and that uniform. “Uh, Mr. Stark-Rogers. I almost forgot that that suit did nothing for your ass,” he said to Steve as he watched the other Steve walk around in a suit too tight for anything.  

“You know Tony, no one asked you to look,” Steve said to him over the com line. 

“It’s me, when am I not looking at any part of your anatomy?”  

“Tony,” Steve’s stern voice came over the line, and Tony was glad that they could talk like this, especially looking at their former selves, who were still trying to get a grip on being a proper team. 

“What was Coulson thinking when he was designing that I have no idea,” Tony said smiling, “It’s ridiculous.” 

“I think you look great Cap,” Scott said over the line, which only reminded them that there was a third person listening in on Tony’s inner thoughts. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s America’s ass.” 

It was really hard to stop himself from snorting out loud at Scott’s comment, especially since now he started thinking about having a pair of sweatpants made for Steve that had the words America’s Ass printed on the back. 

“I know what you’re thinking Tony,” Steve said as they all started to get into position. “The answer is no.” 

“You don’t own me,” he said before turning his attention to the people in front of him. 

“Uhh, magic wand?” Natasha said while holding onto Loki’s scepter. The thing that started it all, these two stones had caused them so much grief in such a short amount of time. 

“STRIKE team’s coming to secure it,” other Tony said just as what they would later learn was HYDRA’s team, which included Rumlow and Stiwell, entered the room. 

“We can take that off your hands,” Sitwell said as he took the scepter from Natasha, if they had known that the stone had been inside, they would have been able to prevent so many things.  

“By all means,” Natasha said. “Careful with that thing.” 

“Unless you want your mind erased. And not in a fun way,” Clint said to the STRIKE team, and boy did Tony wish he could use it on them right now so that they wouldn’t have the chance to take it from the Avengers and start experimenting with it. 

“We promise to be careful,” Sitwell said but his voice made Tony’s skin crawl, just thinking about what they had been up to after the fact. 

“Who are these guys?” Scott asked him as they watched the scene in front of them unfold. 

“They’re SHIELD.... Well, actually the STRIKE team was Hydra, but at the time we didn’t know that yet,” Tony answered wondering in his head about all of the ways he could change the future for this group if he could only tell them that Hydra was in SHIELD. 

“Seriously, you didn’t?” Scott told him, dumbfounded by the whole thing. “I mean... they look like bad guys.” 

“We had been a little busy,” Tony said feeling tired already. “You know you’re small, but you’re talking loud.” 

“On my way down to coordinate search and rescue,” other Steve said to the room, when all of a sudden Loki transformed into Steve, Tony realized at this point that Loki could be their one advantage in this whole thing, mainly because he can make himself look like anyone, which meant that they wouldn’t know that his Steve wasn’t their Steve, they could all think that it was just Loki playing tricks on them. 

“On my way down to coordinate search and rescue!” Loki said before transforming back into his original form. “I mean, honestly! How do you think you’ll be...” 

Before Loki could say anymore Thor slapped a device on his brother’s mouth effectively rendering him silent. “Shut up,” Thor said and Tony could swear he saw the god smile at his brother as if this was something they had done before. 

“All right, you’re up, little buddy,” Tony said as he watched the briefcase that was holding the Tesseract. “There’s our stone.” 

“Alright,” Scott said before laying down on Tony’s shoulder. “Flick me.” 

It was the one moment where he was willing to flick Scott across the room, because if Scott looked at his husband’s ass one more time, Tony was surely going to find a way to squash the little bugger. Scott hit Tony’s other self on the beard, which only caused the man to scratch it as if it itched, which worked well for Ant-man. Who slid down onto the arc reactor. 

“The bee is in the hive,” Tony said into his com, as he watched the Avengers get into the elevator, only to laugh when he saw the Hulk try to get in there as well. That same elevator would be upgraded for when the Avengers moved into the tower a few months later, mainly because of what had happened that day. 

“I’m an Ant not a Bee,” Scott said to him. 

“Doesn’t matter right now,” Tony answered as he watched what was happening in front of him. 

“Whoa,” he hears Thor say. 

“Whoa, whoa. Hey! Buddy,” his other self said as he addressed the Hulk, “What do you think? Maximum occupancy has been reached.” 

“Take the stairs,” Thor said, and Tony knew now that it was Thor’s little revenge for the Hulk hitting him during the battle. 

“Yeah,” his other self said, and Tony was sure at that moment that the Hulk would have hit him if he hadn’t stopped. When he saw the Hulk again after all this was over he was going to give him a glass staircase as an apology, for the collection of course. “Stop, stop,” his other said with an authority that even now he couldn’t understand, no one had control over the Hulk. 

Tony could hear Hulk ranting about taking the stairs as he monitored the elevators as they descended the tower. “All right, Cap. I got our scepter in the elevator just passing the 80th floor.” 

“On it,” Steve said over the comm, “Head to the lobby.” 

“Alright, I’ll see you there.” 

If there was one thing that Steve was going to hate about this mission it was the fact that he couldn’t stop the Hydra agents from taking the scepter to Sokovia, to stop the experimentation that would happen with it. He wouldn’t be able to stop SHIELD from crumbling the way it did, because if they changed anything in this timeline who knows what would happen to these Avengers. The only thing he could do was act as one of them, just to get the stone, because they needed it, and hopefully they would be able to fix any damage they’ve made afterwards.  

He could hear Sitwell talking in the elevator, although his words are muffled, he knew that they were getting ready to transport the stone to wherever it was they had taken it before it ended up with Von Strucker. The moment the elevator opened; he could see the surprised look on their faces as Steve walked onto the elevator. 

“Captain, I thought you were coordinating search and rescue?” Sitwell asked and it took everything in him to not hit the man. 

“Change of plans,” Steve told him. The only thing he kept thinking about was that this was for his family, for Tony, for Nat, Shuri, Hope, and Clint, who all had lost their families. 

Hey Cap,” Rumlow said, and Steve nearly turned and punched him for what happened in Lagos. 

“Rumlow,” he says watching as the men around him all started getting suspicious of him. “I just got a call from the Secretary. I’m going to be running point on the scepter.” 

“Sir? I don’t understand,” Sitwell said, and he knew that this was the moment where he would hate himself for what he was about to do to his other self.  

“We got word that there may be an attempt to steal it,” Steve said to the elevator of Hydra Agents. 

“I’m going to have to call the Director,” Sitwell said ready to pull out his phone and make the call. 

“That’s okay, trust me,” he leaned close to Sitwell and whispered the only words that he’s dreaded for his entire time as Captain America. “Hail Hydra.” 

The surprised look in all of their eyes was enough for him to grab the scepter and walk off without another word. He couldn’t smile, even if he wanted to, because he had just screwed over his other self in this timeline. 

“I got the scepter,” he said as he walked away from the elevator, the scepter in his hand, he knew he had to move fast before someone realized that he wasn’t their Steve Rogers. 

“Hear you loud and Clear oh Captain my Captain,” Tony said over his comm line as he got into place. Since Steve finished his part, Tony knew that they just needed the tesseract and they could go back without a hitch. “Thumbelina, do you copy? I’ve got eyes on the prize, Cap’s got one, so now it’s go-time for us.” 

“Bombs away,” Scott said to him and while Tony knew the reactor inside and out, it’s probably different from Scott’s point of view. It made Tony wonder what it would be like to be able to shrink down and see his own tech from that size. “Is... is that Axe body spray?” 

“Seriously Scott, that’s what you’re taking away from this,” Tony said feeling exasperated because someone other than Steve was smelling him... even if it wasn’t exactly him. “Yeah, I had it for emergencies. Relax. Can we focus here?” 

“Okay, I’m going inside the core area now,” Scott told him as Tony saw Alexander Pierce walk up to the 2012 Avengers. 

“You know if I could have punched him, I would have,” Tony mumbled. 

“Tony stay on mission,” Steve called out. 

“To lunch and then Asgard,” Thor said to Pierce as if it were an everyday occurance to have a giant battle win and then take the prisoner back to Asgard. “I’m sorry, you are?” 

“Alexander Pierce,” other Tony said. “He’s the man, one of the folks behind Nick Fury.” 

“He’s also Hydra, but who cares about that,” Tony said to no one in particular, he couldn’t really figure out why on earth he was narrating this whole encounter. 

“My friends call me Mr. Secretary,” Pierce said, while Tony had to bite his tongue before he said something else. “I’m going to have ot ask you to turn that prisoner over to me.” 

“Loki will be answering to Odin himself,” Thor said and Tony was glad that he had been taken back to Asgard along with the tesseract, because if Hydra had had two of the stones who knows where they would have been. 

“Oh, he’s going to answer to us,” Pierce said as if Tony’s mind wasn’t thinking about a million ways to replusor the man. “Odin can have what’s left. And I’m going to need that case, that’s been SHIELD property for over 70 years.” 

“Hand over the case, Stark,” the agent next to Pierce said and Tony knew that this was just Hydra trying to get a hold of something that they could use to create those phase two weapons. 

“All right, move it Stuart Little,” Tony said knowing that this was their best chance, since the men in front of them were having a pissing contest over an infinity stone. “Things are getting dicey up here. Let’s go.” 

“You promise me you won’t die?” Scott said and Tony knew that this plan wasn’t one hundred percent full proof, hell it wasn’t idiot proof and Steve called him an idiot enough for him to know, but they were idiots together but that was a story to think about another day. 

“You’re only giving me a mild cardiac dysrhythmia.” 

“That doesn’t sound mild,” Scott sounded worried from his end, and Tony knew it wasn’t mild at all but it was their only shot for his other self to let go of the case. 

“I need the case,” he heard Pierce say from the other side of the room. 

“I know you got a lot of pull, I’m just saying....” his other self said. 

“Okay, then give me the case,” Pierce said. 

“Do it, Lang!” Tony said as he watched Pierce try to take the case. 

“Get your hands off,” his other self, called out. 

“Window’s closing, pull my pin,” he said just as he heard Scott on the other side. 

“Here goes... please don’t die.” 

Tony watched as his other self, dropped the case and falls to the ground, he knows how much it hurts when the reactor isn’t working properly, or was actively trying to kill you. He remembered the one time it had been taken out forcefully and he hated his former godfather for the pain he had put him through. Ignoring the scene in front of him, he slowly walked forward as Scott pushed the case forward, as if it were normal for it to move like that after it had fallen. 

“Good job,” Tony said to Scott as he picked up the case. To everyone in the room he was just another SHIELD agent picking up something that had fallen by chance. “Meet me in the alley, I’m gonna grab a quick slice.” 

He was joking, it was great, because they had been successful on their mission, but before he could make it out the door, the side door slammed open pushing him to the ground as the case slid away. 

“NO MORE STAIRS,” Hulk yelled out and Tony knew at that moment they were fucking screwed, because the moment he looks up he sees Loki look at the Tesseract before grabbing it and disappearing. Even as Thor resuscitated the other Tony, they were screwed because that’s when they noticed that both the case and Loki were gone.  

“That wasn’t supposed to happen, was it?” Scott said and Tony wanted to slam his head against the marble tiling on the ground. 

“Fuck,” Tony said out loud, he felt like a truck had hit him, which wasn’t off if the Hulk was the one slamming into a person. “Oh, we blew it.” 

“Tony, what’s going on?” Steve called out as he walked through the tower. “Tell me you found that cube.” 

There had been something wrong with his comm where he was it wasn’t working properly and he couldn’t hear what was happening with Tony and Scott which only worried him more. There was no way to get in contact with them until he got back to their rendezvous point. 

“Oh, you gotta be shitting me,” he said as he saw who was in front of him. Tony would have made a comment about his language at this point, but honestly Steve was ready to just give up on everything. He couldn’t believe that he was staring at himself, a blast from the past, as Tony would have said. 

“I have eyes on Loki,” his other self said. “14th floor.” 

Well at least this would throw off the whole Hydra thing, they would only chalk it up to Loki messing with them just to get the scepter. But for his other self he knew that he had to find a way to reason with the man. He remembered what it had been like during that time, just out of the ice and only one thing moving him forward. This was before he had his team, his family, when everything was ready to fall apart at any turn. 

“I am not Loki,” he said standing there not moving, he knew that he couldn’t make the first move. “And I don’t want to hurt you.” 

Before he could say another word, his other self moved forward, shield at the ready, and went at him, sending him backwards. He really hated himself at that moment, which was strange, but hell he hadn’t known just how much his own punches hurt. Steve took a swing at captain America, he really hated that uniform, and Tony knew it. 

“I can do this all day,” his other self said and god Steve hated that right at that moment. He thought back to the battle, he had been injured on his stomach, which should be a weak point at the moment, his body hadn’t healed very quickly from that blast. 

“Yeah, I know, I know,” he said trying to find a weak spot, but his other self landed a hit and his compass fell out. The picture inside was different, because it was one of Tony and the kids, he kept it close to his heart at all times. But he didn’t think that it would jar his other self so much. 

“Where did you get that,” he said, knowing full well that the other man had the same compass in his uniform with a picture of Peggy, still not able to let go of the past.  

Before he could answer, the man put him in a chokehold as if he were trying to get the answer out of him by rendering him unconscious. He had to think fast, before he couldn’t breathe anymore and Hydra ended up with a second Captain America. 

“Bucky....” he said between breaths. “Bucky... is... alive!” 

That was enough to startle the other man into letting go, “What?” he said before Steve took the chance and knocked him out with the shield. He knew that it was going to hurt when his other self woke up, but Steve was already tired of fighting.  

He stood there for a moment, taking a few quick breaths before looking back at his other self and realizing that what Tony and Scott had been saying was right, “Geez, I’m never going to hear the end of this,” he said to himself. “That’s America’s ass.” 

He took the scepter and his shield and ran off as quickly as he could, since his other self had told SHIELD that he had seen him, they were most likely on their way to where he was and he didn’t want them to find him still standing there thinking that he was Loki. Which was strange to him because he could have sworn that around this time they would have had Loki detained so what could have happened that they would have thought that he was Loki. 

Jumping down from the side of the building he made his way to where Tony and Scott were standing. He could see the defeated looks on their faces long before he reached them. 

“Cap,” Tony said, which meant that something had gone wrong since Tony wasn’t calling him by his name. “We got a problem.” 

“Huh,” Scott said looking at Tony like he just said the obvious. “Yeah, we do.” 

“Well, what are we gonna do now?” he said turning his attention towards Scott. “You know what, give me a break, I just got hit in the head with a Hulk.” 

That got Steve’s attention, “What,” he was about to say but was interrupted by Scott’s rant. 

“You said that we had one shot. This,” he said pointing at the rubble around them. “this was our shot. We shot it. It’s shot. Six stones or nothing. Six stones or noting.” 

“You’re repeating yourself, you know that? You’re repeating yourself,” he said the emphasize his point. 

“You’re repeating yourseld,” Scott said and all Steve could think was that he was trapped in a fight between his kids/ “You’re repeating yourself. - No! - Come on. You never wanted a time heist, you went on board with the time heist.” 

“I dropped the ball,” Tony yelled back. 

“You ruined the time heist,” Scott yelled back. 

“Is that what I did?” Tony asked looking around, and Steve knew that if Tony had gotten hit by the Hulk it wasn’t his fault, but he was taking the blame anyway. 

“Yeah!” Scott answered and it took everything in his power not to hit the other man, supersoldier or not, Steve wanted to punch the guy for making Tony take the blame for something that wasn’t his fault. 

“Are there any other options with the Tesseract?” Steve asked because he needed to focus his energy elsewhere or else he was going to punch an ant. 

“No, no, no. There's no other options. There's no do-overs .  We're not going anywhere else. We have one particle left. Each. That's it, alright? We use that... Bye, bye. You're not going home,” Scott stopped rambling looking at them. They all knew the risks of trying this whole time heist thing. 

“Yeah, well if we don’t try, then no one else is going home either,” Steve told him, he knew he couldn’t fix this, but he had to try for Tony’s sake. 

“I got it.There's another way,” Tony said to them as he stood up. Tony his genius husband knew what they needed, and he was happy for that. “To retake the Tesseract and acquire new particles. We'll stroll down memory lane. Military installation, Garden State. 

“When were they both there?” Steve asked knowing that Scott was about two seconds from trying to stop them from doing whatever it was that they were about to do. 

“They were there at a.... I’ve a vaguely exact idea,” Tony said which meant it was something that he had read at some point but hadn’t kept the information since it wasn’t relevant. Which meant it had happened during the SHIELD data dump and him and Natasha had done the year after. 

“How vague?” 

“What are you talking about?” Scott said interrupting Tony’s thought process. “Where are we going?” 

“I know for a fact that they were there...” Tony stopped looking at no one but Steve, ignoring Scott in the process. 

“Who’s they? What are we going?” Scott continued with his questions not caring that he was being ignored. 

“And I know how I know,” Tony said looking straight at him. Which meant it was from the data dump, which meant that they were going on a little trip and the way that Tony was ignoring Scott, it also meant that he wasn’t counting on Ant-Man to join them. 

“Guys, what's up? What is it?” Scott asked looking between the two of them. 

“Well,” Steve said looking only at Tony. “It looks like we're improvising.” 

“Right. - What are we improvising?” Scott asked and Tony looked at him for the first time. 

“Scott, get this back to the compound,” Tony answered instead of giving Scott the chance at joining them. “Suit up,” he told Steve with a smile. 

“What's in New Jersey?” Scott asked but Tony instead started rambling to himself before turning his attention to the little machine that was guiding their way through time. 

“0-4, 0-4... Uhh, 0-7,” Tony said and Steve wasn’t so sure of what he should be thinking. 

“0-7... Excuse me...” Steve said looking at his husband. 

“1-9-7-0,” he said with a smile. 

“Are you sure? - Cap. Captain. Steve, sorry, America. Rogers. Look, if you do this, and this doesn't work, you're not coming back,” Scott said reminding them of the real risk they were taking by deviating from the plan. 

“Thanks for the pep talk, pissant,” Tony rolled his eyes at Steve, which meant that he was annoyed by Scott’s questioning. “You trust me?” 

“With my life,” Steve said to Tony, pulling his hand close to his heart. 

“Your call.” 

“Here we go,” he said taking a deep breath, before the two of them were off once again into the quantum realm. 

* * *

 

Tony was never going to get used to traveling like that, he was certain that anything and everything he has ever eaten in his life was trying to hurl its way out of him. Steve as usual was behind him, all buff and perfect as ever, rubbing circles around his back.  

“I’ll never get used to that,” he says to Steve while washing his face on the open fountain, they had found themselves in front of.  

They were lucky that they had landed in the 70’s too early in the day for anyone to notice their funny outfits. There wasn’t a person around them for miles, and all Tony really wanted was to sit down for a few minutes and recover from their trip. 

“We didn’t get to talk about this because you and Scott were arguing,” Steve said to him as he pulled them away from the fountain and sat him down at a nearby bench. “What happened with the Hulk?” 

He couldn’t help but sigh, he was sure that his ribs were their bruised or broken, but since had hadn’t spewed out blood they were most likely just bruised. “We had it, the plan had worked, but the Hulk, not ours of course, came barreling through one of the side doors just as I picked up the case, and well threw me against one of the reception counters.” 

“So, I’m guessing that even though Scott was placing all of the blame on you, it wasn’t really your fault that it had happened the way it did.” 

“You got it in one,” he answered slowly rubbing his side, it hurt like a bitch, but he was going to have to deal with it.  

“Don’t take the blame for something that wasn’t your fault,” Steve told him, and he knew him better than anyone. He hadn’t wanted to have anything to do with the time heist, he liked his life, but he also hated that Peter had died, he felt guilt for not stopping Thanos, and most of all he was afraid that everything that they were doing was going to blow up in their faces. 

“I’m trying Steve, but it’s a little difficult right now,” he told him. “Everything is a little hard, because we screwed up once and look at what happened, and now if we don’t succeed in this, we might not make it back home.” 

“We’ll make it back, and the kids will be there waiting for us.” 

“Why are you so positive about this?” 

“Because I trust you with everything I have, you’re the smartest person I know,” Steve said kissing him quickly just in case there was someone watching them. 

“Really smarter than Shuri?” he said joking but only because he knew that Steve was trying to cheer him up. 

“Tony,” was all Steve said which only made him laugh. 

“Come on Captain,” he said standing, his legs a little less shaky, “Let's start walking.” 

It took them most of the morning to get to the base, Camp Leigh was the beginning and the end of SHIELD, where everything started and where Steve learned the truth about what had happened. They had talked about the whole ordeal, it had taken Tony a long time to learn to forgive him for not saying anything sooner, but now it didn’t matter. They had their life together, their family.  

A car drove pass them as they gathered the courage to keep going, “Hey man, make love not war!” an old man said as it drove off.  

The war effort during this time was nothing like what Steve had known, and Tony didn’t want him to be subjected to the hatred that most Army Vets got from going overseas. They were just serving their country, but they had also ended up with a lot of the blame that should have rested on the shoulders of the people in charge. 

“Clearly, you weren't actually born here, right?” Tony said looking at the soldiers in front of them, the people milling about. “I mean that would have made the whole boy from Brooklyn thing a lie.” 

“The idea of Captain America was, not me Tony,” Steve said looking at the picture in front of him. Tony knew that this was a blast from the past for him in many ways. 

“Right,” he said looking at the same place that Steve was looking at. “Well, imagine you’re SHIELD, running a quasi-fascistic intelligence organization. Where do you hide it?” 

Steve turned to him and smiled. “In plain sight,” he said pointing at the suits who were clearly not soldiers moving towards what looked like an ammunitions bunker. 

“Really,” Tony said shaking his head at what he was seeing. “Clearly they have no sense of self preservation.” 

It wasn’t difficult to get into the underground bunker that held the SHIELD headquarters, for one Steve remembered the facility, and Tony knew how to get through their rudimentary systems like they were nothing but Morgan’s marshmallow sandwiches, which she only had when they had tea parties. Mainly because she thought tea was bitter and tastes weird, and marshmallows were the best thing to remedy it. 

The elevator only had one other occupant, and since Steve’s picture had been in the facility, Tony tried his best to shield his husband from being noticed too much. There was also the fact that he was a possessive son of a bitch, and having SHIELD find Steve standing right there in front of them would cause Tony to lose his husband. 

“Good luck on your mission, Captain,” he said with a nod, trying not to smile at the fact that Captain America was dressed in Army fatigues, and looked very good in them. 

“Good luck on your project, doctor,” Steve answered with a wink that the woman hadn’t seen. 

“You’re new here?” Tony heard the woman ask Steve. 

“Not exactly,” he answered just as the doors to the elevator closed, leaving Tony in a place he never thought he would step into. 

The birthplace of Captain America was something to behold, mainly because the bunker hadn’t existed when Steve had been there, but it was still a place that would change their future in more ways than they could have thought of. He wished at that moment that he could tell them that Hydra had infiltrated SHIELD but with everything that happened when they had gone to 2012, Tony wasn’t very keen on changing anymore of the past than was possible. 

With his glasses on and FRIDAY in his ear, it hadn’t taken him very long to find the lab that held the tesseract, which only made the lack of security a little troubling. He remembered that the tesseract would burn his skin if he touched it, so he was careful to put it in the case he had secured on the way there, using one of the Iron Man gauntlets which had formed on his hand. 

“Gotcha,” he said smiling as he closed the briefcase. “Back in the game.” Steve would very happy to know that the plan was half way done, as he closed the panel that had held the stone. 

“Arnim, you in there?” he heard a very familiar voice say, “Arnim?Hey! The door's this way, pal,” Howard said as Tony had tried to sneak out the room without being seen. 

“Oh, yeah,” he answered trying very hard not to have a flashback, as he saw his father standing in front of him.  

“I'm looking for Dr. Zola. Have you seen him?” Howard asked him and Tony almost wanted to shake the man and scream at him for letting someone from Hydra into SHIELD. 

“Yeah, no, Dr. Zol... No, I haven't seen a soul,” he said instead, because he wasn’t allowed to change the past, if he did there was a very real possibility that they wouldn’t find Steve in time, that the Battle of New York would happen and everything would be lost. There were too many variables to think about. 

“Pardon me. Do I know you?” 

“No, sir. I'm, a... visitor from MIT,” he said knowing that his father wouldn’t really care too much about where he was from, what mattered was that he wouldn’t notice just how familiar he looked to the other man. 

“Uh.... Howard,” he said and almost wanted to smack himself, he couldn’t think of anything else, his father was standing in front of him, the man who hadn’t paid any attention to him growing up, who loved Steve more than his own son.  

“Well. That'll be easy to remember,” his father said and Tony was about ten seconds from muttering the words  _no shit Sherlock_ , but stopped himself. 

“Howard... Potts,” he said holding out his hand. 

“Well I’m Howard Stark,” his father looked at him curiously. “You look a little green around the gills there, Potts.” 

Tony wanted nothing more than to step away from the man, he had a few bad memories popping up in his head at the moment and it was making him sick all over again. “I’m fine, just, well long hours, and I had a stomach flu recently,” he said, which really wasn’t a lie when he spewed his guts on the pavement not too long ago. 

“Want to get some air?” Howard asked him and he thought sweet relief, he would be able to put some distance between the two of them if they went up top. 

“Yeah, that would be swell,” geez now Steve was rubbing off on him. They were almost home free, he just needed to get pass Howard, and an entire army battalion and meet up with Steve, no problem. 

* * *

 

It hadn’t taken Steve long to get away from the woman in the elevator, he was sure that they wouldn’t have enough time once she put two and two together, he was glad for one thing and that was the fact that the phones weren’t fancy like the ones that Tony had back at the house. He picked it up and called the extension for Hank Pym that he had found in a book on the side of the desk and called up the number. 

Calling Pym and getting him out of the office was easy, all he had to do was tell the man that something was glowing and he was rushing out of the room. The particles were right there, and he was glad to have found them, because it meant that Tony would have to stop feeling guilty for messing up the plan in the first place, even when it wasn’t his fault. He really wanted to punch Scott for making Tony feel bad about something that was out of his control, but at that moment he couldn’t do much. All that mattered was seeing their kids again, so he took four, in case something else happened, and rushed out of the room. 

Just as he reached the elevator it opened forcing him to rush into a nearby office as the woman from the elevator rushed off with a guard. They were talking about him and Tony and he wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. He was stuck and he wasn’t sure if he was going to have the chance to get out and meet Tony before they caught the two of them. 

Resigning himself to his fate, and turned around and walked further into the office, there were windows on the other side letting in some light, but it was dark enough that they wouldn’t notice him standing there. He needed to think, he needed to find a way to make it outside without people noticing, because they were definitely on the lookout for them now. 

He paced the room twice before noticing a picture of himself sitting on the desk, it was a picture that had been taken when he had been at Camp Leigh, and it was a strange sight to see. It was before the serum, before Captain America, before everything that had happened, but he realized in that moment just how much his life had changed. That Steve still existed, he drew with Miles, he danced with his daughters, and he smiled more whenever his husband was around. He wondered if everything had been different just how much this one photo would affect him. He couldn’t help but pick up the frame and look at his former self, someone who he hadn’t been in decades. 

The voices on the other side of the glass drew his attention, they were talking but the glass muffled the sound, but on the other side in all of her glory was Peggy Carter. Tony called her the one that got away for him, which was true but still bothered him to hear, because from the look in Tony’s eyes, Steve knew what his husband thought. He knew he wouldn’t trade his life for anything, his time with Peggy had gone, there was no going back, not anymore. 

He was about to turn and leave when someone rushed into the room and Steve came face to face with Tony who looked like he had seen a ghost. 

“Are you okay?” Steve asked him from the other side of the desk. 

“Yeah, there’s a lot of soldiers out there looking for us, but I also saw my dad, which was something else entirely, he said he would do anything for me, and I knew he wasn’t, and as much as I wanted to yell at him about it,” Tony said without stopping, he was rambling and Steve loved it. “I didn’t, mainly because I saw Jarvis, the real Jarvis standing there, and I knew everything would be alright, I wouldn’t have the happy childhood or anything like that, but as long as Jarvis and his wife were there, I knew I would turn out alright.” 

Steve nodded, but before he could say anything else, Tony saw whose office they were in, he was quiet for a moment, not wanting to say anything. “Tony,” Steve whispered not sure if the people on the other side of the window could hear them. 

“No,” Tony said to him before looking down at the carpeted floor. “Listen have your moment, I’m not stopping you.” 

All he could do was sigh, he didn’t know what to say that would reassure the man he loved, but before he could even say anything the door swung open and Peggy Carter stepped into the room. The two of stood still, neither one knowing what to do, but when the lights went on, Steve could see the sad look in Tony’s eyes, he knew that this was a moment that Steve had dreamed of for years. But what Tony hadn’t known was that the moment didn’t mean much to him anymore, he had everything he could have ever wanted. 

Peggy stood stock still for a moment, Steve saw her reach for her weapon, but when her eyes settled on Steve she stopped, her eyes wide. “Steve,” she said and it felt like the whole world stopped. 

For Steve, he was afraid of what Tony would think, but he was also thinking about what it would mean for SHIELD to know that he was there, alive and in the flesh. He heard a whimpering noise come out of Tony but neither said a word. Peggy quickly closed the blinds, giving them privacy, but looking at both of them warily. 

“Is it really you,” she said and he nodded just as she rushed across the room and put her arms around him. Steve could only keep his eyes on Tony, and the sadness he saw was more painful than anything he could have imagined. “But how?” 

“It’s a long story, and one that I really can’t tell you,” Steve told her. “You weren’t supposed to see me, we weren’t supposed to get caught,” he motioned towards Tony who was still standing on the other side of the room, quieter than he had ever seen him. 

“You’re the men that broke in here, but for what?” she asked looking at the two of them noticing the briefcase that Tony was holding. 

“Please Peg, don’t ask things I can’t really tell you,” he said but before he could stop her, she walked over to where Tony was standing and looked right into his eyes. 

“You look familiar,” she said to Tony who just gave her a warm smile. 

“If I told you that we’re from the future, and you would be my aunt, would you believe me?” Tony said with a small smile, he was sad and shy and Steve just wanted to kiss it out of him. 

“Well considering Steve is standing in front of me at this moment, I would say you may have a story to tell, but not one I’m supposed to know.” 

She looked at the two of them, neither one of them moving from where they stood, but then she smiled, “You’ve changed haven’t you Steve,” she said. 

“Yeah well,” he said with a smile. “There’s only so much you can do when you’re living in a life you hadn’t expected.” 

She nodded but curiously looking between the two of them, “I think as much as I would have wished you had been around all of these years, you no longer belong with us, do you?” 

“I don’t think I do Peg,” he said smiling at Tony. “I belong with my family.” 

“A family you say,” she smiled at him. “I have a family as well, I wonder if you’ll meet them one day.” 

Before they could answer someone knocked on the door, making Peggy push them into a closet in the corner of the room so that she could open the door and speak to the soldiers on the other side of the room. 

“You can stay you know,” Tony whispered to him.  

“Tony,” he said before kissing his husband on the lips. “I would pick you over anyone else, I did pick you, I’ve known you longer than your dad, the commandos, even Peggy, you’re my life, you gave me a home and a family, I need you and I really wish you would get that through your thick head.” 

“But.” 

“No buts, no nothing, it’s you and me against the world, if I had the chance to do everything all over again, I would still put that plane in the ice if it meant that you were on the other side waiting for me.” 

Tony sighed as he listened to him, and Steve knew that this was him giving into the fact that Steve wasn’t going anywhere. They were a team, they were parents, but most of all they were married, and Steve honestly wouldn’t give it up for anything, not even the chance to live the life he had lost because even in their present, he had everything a sickly boy from Brooklyn could have ever wanted.  

Taking the chance, he leaned down and kissed his husband, no one else was watching, of course they weren’t, the two of them were in a closet in an underground SHIELD facility being chased by every guard the facility had, because they broke in here to steal two things.  _Who would be looking inside of the closet?_  He thought to himself, the answer was that one person would, and she had just swung the door open and cleared her throat. 

“I see a lot of things have changed since I last saw you,” she said an eyebrow quirked up looking at them with a smile on her face.  

“Yes well, that’s for another time,” Steve said as they stepped out. 

“The guards are looking for the two of you, and I’m taking a guess that whatever it was that you came looking for was something important enough for you to break into a heavily guarded facility.” 

“It’s a matter of life and death,” Tony told her, and honestly it was the truth, they could bring everyone back, save so many lives. 

“If it’s life and death, then it’s a Steve Rogers mission,” she said to them before placing her hands on her hips. “I guess I need to help you out of here then.” 

“That would be great,” Steve said sighing in relief.  

“I’m not going to ask questions about your life Steve, or about who your mystery man here is, all I want to know is if you’re happy?” 

“I am,” he told her before looking over at Tony. “I’m happier than I could have ever imagined.” 

“Good to know,” she said before pushing a button in the revealing a secret tunnel. The two of them looked over at her shocked at what they were seeing. “What, do you think that I would trust anyone here when they brought in Zola and had him work for us. I don’t trust that rodent to save my life.” 

“No one should,” Tony said to her before smiling.  

“Just take this tunnel, it goes on for a few miles, but it lets you out far enough away that you can make it to wherever it is that you wish to go,” she said to them. “And take care of him mystery man.” 

“It’s Tony,” Steve said smiling. 

“Yeah, actually it’s Anthony, so if you could suggest that name to your friend, maybe his wife won’t name him something weird,” Tony said and Peggy smiled at him. 

“Ah so you’re Howard’s kid, I’ll make sure your parents won’t name you something weird, I promise.” 

“Thanks,” Tony said before he started walking forward. 

“Who would have thought you and Howard’s kid, the man would have a coronary if he knew, but I won’t tell him, I’ll just stay close to Tony, and when you find him in the future wherever you are, I’ll make sure you cherish him as much as you do now.” 

“Thanks Peggy, and sorry about missing our dance.” 

“Yes, well it seems as if it wasn’t me who would get that dance in the first place, and while I had loved you once, I did find the man I was meant to be with thanks to you, so I can’t fault you for anything.” 

With a wave, Steve joined Tony as they walked down the long underground path, holding his hand, they were going back home. They knew that when the stones went back to their own times, they would have to avoid bumping into themselves. It was a long hard journey they were on, but it was worth it if it meant that their family would be whole again. 

“Wait until I rub this in Scott’s face,” Tony said with a smile. “Not the getting caught by Peggy part, but the fact that we got the stone and the pym particles, so he can suck it.” 

“Tony,” he said but he really couldn’t reprimand them man, not when he was so happy. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm almost done rewriting the movie, literally the next two chapters will end where the movie ends, and anything after that will become the new version of the story.... the happier version.
> 
> Tell me what you think about this so far, because honestly I don't know where I'm going with this.


	7. To Bring them Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One dies to save them all

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the shortest chapter I've written  
> The first half of this made me an emotional mess..... I didn't like writing it at all. NATASHA!!!!!!  
> Also, if you've been following the other story, Floating has been updated with Laura, Groot, and of course Natasha points of view.

They landed back on the Quantum platform, barely two seconds had passed before Tony rushed off to heave out whatever was left in his stomach, Steve following him towards the nearest trash bin, once again rubbing his hand up and down Tony’s back. He really hated time travel, and he was glad it was over because it meant that his stomach would stop heaving so much. He really couldn’t understand why it kept happening, he flew around in a suit of armor, but apparently this was the one thing that wasn’t going to let him have an easy time. 

“Did we get them all?” Bruce said from the platform, forcing Tony to pay attention to what they were actually doing and not throwing up again. He couldn’t wait to brush his teeth, maybe take a bath, before he actually did what he promised himself and climb Steve like a tree, because they did it, they got the stones. 

 “Your telling me this’ll actually work?” Rhodey said smiling at them all, but Tony noticed something when Nebula hadn’t acknowledged him, it was weird considering how close she was to Rhodey. He wondered if something had gone wrong for Nebula, Rhodey and Carol’s team, but he could also be overthinking and she could just be sick from the trip, but that was before Carol looked over at Nebula and noticed something as well. When his eyes met Carol’s, he knew that she had noticed something as well, he was going to have to ask her about it when he was feeling a little better. 

“Clint, where’s Nat?” Bruce said pulling Tony out of his thoughts and forcing him to notice a very empty spot next to Clint, but it couldn’t be, Nat would have come back, Steve had told him that she had wanted someone back from the snap. 

He could feel his knees buckle right before he threw up again all over the floor, they had messed up, not just him getting thrown across a room by the Hulk mess up but losing someone they loved. Nat who painted his toes when she wanted the right nail polish color, Nat who told him really crazy stories about Clint as a father, the woman who looked out for him when he ignores all medical advice, the one who had stabbed him in the neck just to give him more time.  

The room was silent, his head pounding because of the constant heaving, his chest hurt, and he couldn’t tell if it was from his run in with the Hulk anymore. He couldn’t think anymore, he could hear the Hulk raging and something breaking around him, but he wasn’t sure if it was real. He wanted to think that they were all back safe and sound, that nothing bad had happened, he hadn’t noticed the tears falling from his face until he couldn’t breathe anymore. Steve was on the floor next to him holding onto him, he could feel his husband’s chest shaking. It didn’t matter if anyone else was in the room, it didn’t matter if they had all made it, she hadn’t, and they lost the one person who had tried the hardest to keep them all together all of these years. 

It was an hour later, after the Hulk had calmed down enough for Bruce to come out, after Thor had gone back to drinking everything he could find, after Clint cried in the conference room, throwing everything he could. After Steve took Tony to their in-suite bathroom and the two of them held onto one another while under the too hot spray of water. The hour feeling longer than it should have, before they all met on the dock outside of facility. 

“Do we know if she had family?” Shuri asked, she was one of the few people who had been friends with Natasha over the years. 

“Yeah,” Steve answered looking at the too young Queen. “Us.” 

“What?” Thor said looking confused at the group, Bruce rubbing his back knowing full well how badly he had relapsed after just a few days. 

“I just asked a question,” Shuri answered. 

“Yeah, you're acting like she's dead. Why are we acting like she's dead?” Thor said his speech clear even after consuming as much alcohol as he had. “We have the stones, right? As long as we have the stones, Cap, we can bring her back, isn't that right? So, stop this shit. We're the Avengers, get it together.” 

“We can’t get her back,” Clint said his face despondent never really looking any of them in the eye. It hurt because she had been his partner, so losing her after losing his wife was weighing heavily on his shoulders. 

“Wha-what?” Thor said  

“It... it can’t be undone,” Clint said, and Tony could hear the heaviness in the man’s voice, there was something about losing someone close to you that made it all the more painful, and for all of them Natasha was family. 

“I'm sorry. No offense, but you're a very earthly being. Okay? We're talking about space magic. And "can't" seems very definitive don't you think?” Thor said with a slight glee as if they couldn’t understand the severity of what kind of magic was at play. 

“Look, I know that I'm way outside my paygrade here. But she still isn't here, is she?” Clint said defensively, Tony knew that this could go south quickly, with the pain of her death too fresh in their minds. 

“Now that's my point...” Thor started but Clint stopped him before he could say anything else. 

“It can't... be undone. Or that's at least what the, great floating guy had to say," Clint starts shouting at Thor, and they all knew that he was trying to convey this whole clusterfuck to Thor, but they could see the grief in the man’s eyes, it was like losing all over again. “Maybe you wanna go talk to him? Okay? Go grab your hammer, and you go fly and you talk to him.” 

Clint at that moment broke down, the tears started coming down fast and faster, “It was supposed to be me. She sacrificed her life for that goddamned stone. She bet her life on it,” he said, and Tony knew that Clint would have sacrificed anything just to see his wife again, he was near suicidal and Natasha had given him a second chance at living happily with his family. 

“She's not coming back. We have to make it worth it. We have to,” Bruce said a slight twinge of green coloring his face. 

“We will,” Steve told them, but Tony could see the redness in his eyes, and he couldn’t take it anymore, he stood up and walked away going to the one place he could feel at peace, but the moment he saw her room, the door wide open, clothes thrown all over the place, he couldn’t help himself he walked in and sat at the edge of her bed. 

“You weren’t supposed to die,” he whispered to no one, the slight smell of her flowers in the air, an overturned bottle of nail polish on the nightstand. Tony wondered if he had a sister growing up would she have been like Natasha, brave and fearless, but also kind and caring. He couldn’t help but hold the bottle, it was a part of an Avengers collection, and it was the same red as his armor.  

The tears came hard and fast, before he knew it, he threw the bottle across the room shattering the glass mirror near the bathroom door. The red polish staining the carpet in the room as it ran down the wall with the planes of glass. She was another death of this war, another person who should have lived by died because they hadn’t stayed together. Everything in the last fifteen years of his life led to this, and there were too many if only’s running through his head. He hated Thanos for causing this, he hated everyone who had caused all of this, because if there was one thing, he would change in all of their lives, it would be for them to all be happy. 

“She was in love with Bucky,” Steve said walking into the room, taking in the scene in front of him. “She told me during one of those days when I had stopped here, hell she told me the day you came back on that ship looking like you hadn’t eaten or slept in weeks.” 

“Why are you tell me this Steve?” 

“She was my best friend in this time, you’re the love of my life but she was my friend,” he sat down next to Tony and took his hand. “She was our family, we’re allowed to grieve over this.” 

“We don’t have time to grieve Steve, we don’t have time to do anything else but finish this, because it’s what she would have wanted,” he stopped talking, he couldn’t deal with this anymore, but the sadness in his husband’s eyes meant that they had to take the moment, even if it was a short one. 

“We have time,” Steve said to him holding him close.  

They sat there in that room, the small space she had occupied while she tried to keep the Avengers together, while Tony broke down and cried but moved on all the same, where Steve learned to move forward, even if they all could never really move on from one loss. 

“Nat and Barnes, really,” he said thinking about Natasha and the Winter Soldier. “Do I even want to know how that happened.” 

“She said he had trained her, in the red room, that they had fallen in love, I think deep down, Buck found something that felt like home during those years, but in the end, Hydra took that from him too.” 

“Do you think, that maybe they would have found each other after we did all of this,” he said gesturing to the world as a whole, though he was sure Steve would understand what he was saying. “Would the brainwashing have given him those memories back?” 

“I’m not sure, I barely talked to him when he was in Wakanda, and when I did take the time to see him it was still a little strange,” Steve said holding Tony close. “We’ll never know unless we try to fix it all, but it’s too late for them if what Clint is saying is true.” 

“Maybe, maybe not, we’ll never know unless we try,” Tony said to him, knowing full well that even some theories were meant to be changed. 

* * *

They didn’t waste any time after that, Steve could see the determination in Tony’s eyes, the need to fix something that was broken, it was something he loved about the man. They were in the lab as Tony and Rocket worked on the glove, they needed to make sure that this would work, because they couldn’t have one more failure on their hands. He knew that they wouldn’t be able to take another one especially after the last three big ones. 

“Hey,” Carol said as she walked over to where Steve was. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you and Tony about, but since he’s busy, do you think we could talk before we did whatever it is, we’re doing with this glove.” 

“Sure, I have time,” he said before gesturing for them to talk in the hallway, leaving the others to work on the gauntlet without any interruptions. 

The facility seemed quieter since they returned, when they had left everyone had been in high spirits, they joked around a little, yes, they were scared but they were Avengers again. It had been just another mission for them, another hurtle that they had to go through. Now with Nat gone, he could tell that they were trying their best, Thor stayed quiet preferring to watch as the others worked, Clint in the corner staring at the spot, even Steve knew, had been there for her. Carol and Rhodes had stayed away, just like Steve and Tony, they had gone to grieve on their own, Shuri had stayed behind with Clint, Bruce and Thor, when Tony had rushed off.  

Every once and a while Steve could swear that Thor’s powers were manifesting nearby as the crackle of lighting hit the skies above. They were all hurting from this, but Thor was trying to think differently about what had happened, swearing that there would be a way to get her back. Steve knew it had to do with Bruce’s reaction to Nat’s death, they had all been close, but those two had learned to live in a world all their own and losing their friend was a hard thing to have happen. They had all been doing so well until this happened and Steve hated it, he hated that whenever they got somewhere, or found some form of happiness the universe saw fit to throw a wrench in their path. 

They stopped far enough away that no one was around to hear them, but close enough in case they were needed. He saw the worried look in Carol’s eyes and he wasn’t sure why, it could be nerves just like any one of them, but there was something else there that he couldn’t place. 

“When we returned from Morag, I noticed something different about Nebula,” Carol said and Steve couldn’t help but wonder how different Nebula had been acting for Carol to notice and not Tony, but then again they had found out about Natasha soon after getting back so if Tony had noticed anything it had been quickly overshadowed by Nat’s death. 

“What did you notice?” he asked genuinely curious about what Carol had seen that they all had missed, though now that he thought about it, Nebula hadn’t been seen since they returned. Usually she would be with Valkyrie or Tony, but he hadn’t seen her come near them at all which was a little odd for her, and he knew that she was strange as it was. 

“Where is she? Have you seen her, because Valkyrie came to me asking about her and she was nowhere near us, she vanished,” Carol said to him and he knew something was wrong with the whole situation. 

“Did anything happen while you were all on that planet? Anything that would have alerted you to something coming after you all?” 

“No, not really, but on the way back she was late, James and I were well on our way before she appeared next to us all.” 

“Don’t tell anyone, I don’t want Tony to worry right now,” he told her as he heard Rocket yell out something and Tony’s voice started arguing with the raccoon. “Go find her and bring her to the lab, we’ll have Tony talk to her, because if there’s someone who would notice it would be him.” 

“That’s true, they have spent the most amount of time together outside of her relationship with Rocket. I know that what she has with Valkyrie isn’t new, but I don’t want to worry her right now especially since they’re all worried about Thor.” 

“I’ll be in the lab, most likely we’re going to test out that gauntlet the moment they finish, so I don’t want to be far from them, but yell for FRIDAY if you notice anything suspicious happening.” 

“Will do Army,” she said before walking off. There was always a possibility of something going wrong for all of them, but he had thought that it couldn’t have been as bad as what happened on with his small team back in 2012. Now he wasn’t so sure that they all hadn’t gotten off unscathed from this whole ordeal. 

He was about to turn around when he hears the sounds of his own kids in the background, they’re hiding, and they shouldn’t be there at all, but he has really good hearing and Miles is terrible at things like hide and seek. Steve learned that from watching Miles play with Morgan, it strange that someone with powers to hide on the ceiling, is terrible at hiding from a five-year-old. Steve walked towards the closet, he knows they’re in there, and opens it watching as his kids, Lila Barton and America Chavez all spill out of the small space. 

“Do I even want to know how you five all fit in there?” he asked as they all tried to recover from the fall. “Or better yet why you’re all here in the first place?” 

“Well.... you see,” Miles starts before looking to his sisters for help. 

“We want to help,” Kamala said looking at him with a hopeful look.  

“We know that you and Dad are trying to get everyone back,” Riri said looking at him and he knew she was trying to get out of being in trouble for this. “When dad dropped us off at Aunt Pepper’s we had already known.” 

“Because I kind of overheard the whole conversation you guys had with Nat, Bruce, Scott and Hope,” Kamala said which meant that they’ve known the whole. “Pops we want to help.” 

“We want our families back,” Lila said a sadness in her eyes, “I want my dad to stop looking so sad.” 

Steve didn’t miss how America automatically hugged Lila, which meant that Lila was the girl that America had been talking about. They had all grown, found friends, and some had even fallen in love, this was what they were trying to protect. He didn’t know what to do about them showing up, they were all grown up enough to make their own decisions about what they wanted to do regardless of what he or Tony thought. 

“Go to the living area and stay there,” he told them knowing that Tony was going to have a fit about them all being there. “I need to talk to your father,” he looked at his kids knowing that while they loved them, they wanted to protect their parents as much as him and Tony wanted to protect them. 

They all smiled at him, as if they had won a battle, in reality it was just the beginning because they knew Tony’s stubborn streak when it came to their protection. America and Lila walked off holding hands, while Kamala and Miles jumped for joy at winning this small battle. 

“Dad’s not going to like this is he,” Riri said smiling at him. 

“Not a bit, but I figure if you’re as far away from the workshop, he can’t come after you until we finish what we’re doing,” he told her before giving her a hug. “No go and stay with them, I know that Kamala and Miles are up to something, and I love you all but I also don’t trust you to not get into trouble here. You’re the oldest, keep them all out of trouble.” 

“Okay but you owe me.” 

“I owe you nothing, you snuck in here without permission, all you get from me is a hug and that’s it.” 

“But,” she started but he just looked at her, she knew that she was in trouble and there was no getting out of that. “Fine... geez, I hate that look.” 

“Yeah well that’s what you get for disappointing me, no go get,” he said making sure she didn’t double back to sneak into the workshop. He didn’t want the fight with Tony to happen not when he was already working on something that could potentially kill them all if they weren’t careful with it. 

Tony couldn’t help but notice how long Steve had been gone, Carol had pulled him aside and Tony knew for certain this had something to do with Nebula. There was something off about her, she had become friends with Natasha over the years but hadn’t reacted to her death, she hadn’t shown any emotion at all even though she had grown over the years. It was a little disconcerting to him to see her acting that way, it was almost as if she had become another person. 

“All right. The glove's ready. Question is, who's gonna snap their freaking fingers?” Rocket said pulling him away from his thoughts. Steve walked through the door and looked over at Tony, which meant that they needed to talk but with the present situation at hand it was going to have to wait. 

“I’ll do it,” Thor said and they all knew that it was a bad idea, not one of them knew what it would do to any of them, they had said that it had made Thanos’ arm not function after using it not just the one time, but twice. 

“Excuse me?” Scott said looking over at the Norse God. 

“It’s okay,” Thor said making his way towards the glove. 

“No, no, no, whoa. Stop. Stop. Wait a sec. Hey, hey...,” they all yelled at him, they needed to think about this, and Thor rushing into doing it wasn’t the best plan they had. 

“Wait, wait, wait, Thor, just wait. We haven't decided who's gonna put that on yet,” Steve said pulling Thor away from the glove, they needed to make this decision with all of their heads on right, and Tony knew that anyone of them could lose an arm because of it. 

“Oh, I'm sorry. What, were you just sitting around waiting for the right opportunity?” Thor looked around the room, it wasn’t about the opportunity, it was about making sure that they all survived this. 

“We should at least discuss it,” Scott said looking at Thor, while Hope watched the interaction from his side. 

“Look, us sitting here staring at that thing is not gonna bring everybody back. I'm the strongest Avenger, okay? So, this responsibility falls upon me. It's my duty,” Thor answered, and Tony knew this was more for the man to make amends to himself for what happened five years ago. 

“It’s not that...” Tony said trying to find a way to convey this. 

“It’s... stop it, just let me,” he said tearing up. “Just let me do it. Just let me do something good. Something great.” 

“Look...It's not just the fact that that glove is channeling enough energy to light up a continent, I'm telling you you're in no condition right now to do this,” Tony told him. “Thor, you need time to calmly think about this and that’s something we don’t have.” 

“What do you think is coursing through my veins right now?” Thor said trying to make himself feel like the bigger man, and not the man who has been struggling with defeat for five years. 

“Cheez Whiz?” Rhodey said and Tony gave him a nasty look, it wasn’t the time to antagonize a Norse God, and Rhodey should have known better. 

“Lightning,” Thor answered instead. 

“Yeah,” Tony rubbed the big guy’s arms. “But we don’t need that right now.” 

“Lightning won't help you, love. It's gotta be me,” Bruce said before shaking his head. “Actually, it has to be Hulk, you saw what those stones did to Thanos. It almost killed him. None of you could survive.” 

“How do we know the Hulk would?” Steve asked. 

 “We don't. But the radiation's mostly gamma,” Bruce said looking at the gauntlet the stones resting in their places. “It's like...uh... We were made for this.” 

“Bruce, you weren’t made for anything,” Hope said to him. “We’re all just here because of circumstance, it could have been anyone.” 

“I’m not all that certain about that,” Bruce said to her. “We’re not certain about anything if you think about it.” 

“The multiverse theory,” Shuri said looking at them. “The theory that there are an infinite number of universes out there, but even in those universes we all exist in different ways, but we still exist within our circumstances.” 

“Like I would still be War Machine in a different universe,” Rhodey said looking at her, Tony was fascinated by this just as much as anyone else. “Or Tony could have been a woman.” 

“Hey,” Tony said but Steve smiled. 

“You know it could have been possible, it’s not the woman who decides the sex of the baby,” Rhodey told him, but even Tony knew that Rhodey was just messing with him. 

“We won’t know the outcome of any of it though,” Bruce said to them. “We could all exist, we could have met at a different time in our lives, but it would still be us.” 

Tony looked around the room and knew it was the truth, hell they had just gone into the past and messed with the timelines, so for those people, their present day would be something different from what they were living. Nothing would have been the same regardless. Maybe Natasha would be alive, maybe Steve would have been the one to die, maybe Tony would have never gotten the reactor removed. Infinite possibilities, he hoped that they didn’t suffer the same fate as the rest of them did. 

They watched as Bruce walked over to Thor and kiss the man, giving him an uneasy smile before turning into the Hulk. There was a tension in the room, it had more to do with the glove than with the Hulk standing there.  

“Good to go,” Tony said and Hulk huffed out for a moment before turning to the glove. Bruce must have told him about what was happening at some point because the Hulk didn’t even flinch. 

“Let’s do it,” Hulk said as he looked out at all of them. 

“You remember... everyone Thanos snapped away five years ago and just bringing them back to now, today. Don't change anything from the last five years,” Tony explained to him. 

“Got it Tin Man,” Hulk said smiling. 

“Alright everyone suit up,” Steve said grabbing his shield as they all took positions, Scott and Hope both ready standing together, Shuri behind a glass wall, Tony activated the suit, but he saw an uneasy look in Steve’s eyes and he wasn’t sure what to think about it. 

“FRIDAY, do me a favor and activate Protocol 8,” Tony said as he activated the shield for his suit, Clint standing next to him. 

“Yes, boss,” FRIDAY said as the room went into lock down. 

“Everybody come home,” Hulk said to them as he puts on the gauntlet, Tony couldn’t help but watch as the stones lit up the Hulk’s arm, the power was really something else. Tony had never seen the Hulk in any kind of pain before but from the look on his face it was evident that the power of the gauntlet was taking its toll. 

“Take it off. Take it off!” Thor yelled out, worried for the man who had been there for him all of this time. To Thor, the Hulk and Bruce weren’t two separate beings, they were everything to him. 

“No, wait,” Steve called out, stopping Thor from doing anything. “Hulk, are you okay?” 

“Yes,” Hulk grunted at them, nodding at Thor who had backed down. “Bring friends back.” 

They watched as Hulk snapped his fingers, the gauntlet lighting up the room, Tony couldn’t help but watch as something that looked so harmless burned through the Hulk’s arm. They watched as the big guy slumps down and passes out, the gauntled sliding off and falling away as Hulk turned back into Bruce. Clint kicking it away from the man as they all walked over. 

“Did it work?” Steve asked as he walked over. “Bruce.” 

“Don’t move him,” Tony told him worried about what kind of damage the gauntlet had done if it was already manifesting on the scientist. 

“Did it work?” Bruce said holding onto Steve’s arm. 

“Worth a shot. It's over. It's okay,” Thor said kneeling on the man’s other side. Tony watched as Steve pulled away while Thor comforted Bruce. 

“You have something on your mind,” Tony said pulling his husband away from what was happening. “Tell me.” 

“Carol thinks Nebula isn’t who she says she is,” Steve said and Tony couldn’t believe what he was hearing, he knew something was off but he hadn’t gone that far. “And the kids showed up when I was talking to her, they were hiding in a closet.” 

That got Tony’s attention, the one thing that he had tried to do was keep his kids out of everything, but if they had shown up and this had all gone south, he wouldn’t know what to do with himself. “Shit,” he said pulling away. “Shit.” 

“You already said that,” Steve said to him but it only made him want to say it again. 

“FRIDAY,” Tony called out. “Tell the kids to suit up because I’m going to go kill them in a minute, right after I take care of Bruce.” 

“Tony,” Steve said but all he could do was glare at his husband.  

“No, you should have told them to go home,” he said wanting to yell but holding back. “They shouldn’t be here.” 

“I couldn’t send them away,” Steve said and Tony knew that it was one of Steve’s biggest weaknesses, those kids were both of their weaknesses. “They’re safe here for now.” 

“We didn’t know what would have happened with this, they could have gotten hurt,” he told him and Steve took his hand. “I can’t lose them too.” 

“I know Tony, once we’re finished, we’ll take them home okay,” Steve told him before kissing him, the two of them a sight in full battle armor, like the gauntlet would have attacked them for using the stones the wrong way. 

All of a sudden Clint’s phone started ringing, pulling them out of their conversation and making them all turn towards the thing as it vibrated on the table. Clint looked at them before looking at the phone rushing to pick it up, almost dropping it as he saw the name on the screen. His face lit up with joy, “Honey,” he said into the receiver. “Honey.” 

“Guys... I think it worked,” Scott said from across the room as he looked out at the small garden near the workshop, they all saw the birds which hadn’t been there before flying around. 

“Army we have a problem,” Carol’s voice rung out over the com lines, Tony looked over at Steve before everything outside turned dark and the world collapsed around them. Tony’s last thought was that his kids were somewhere in the compound. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is the last chapter for the movie verse, and then the actual AU part of the story begins, I have five chapters between the end of Endgame and the fix-it part that are kind of what-if chapters. I've been plotting them for a while, so look forward to that. Some of them are in correlation to what happened, one during the 2012 time jump with Steve and the Bucky is alive thing, the other has to do with 1970.


	8. Endgame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Final Battle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't hurt me.  
> No this isn't the end of the story, there's more to come.  
> P.S. read the note at the end

The first thing that came to mind was that there was something heavy on top of him, that’s what happens when a building collapsed on you of course. The second thing was that his friends and family were also trapped under the rubble, he knew Steve was close but how much weight could the super soldier take on top of him. How much could his kids take, he didn’t know where they were, only that Steve had told him that they were somewhere in the compound waiting for punishment for breaking the rules and following them. He was grounding them until they were forty for even showing up, it was the only thing he could think because the thought of losing them after all of this was just too much to handle. 

He couldn’t help but panic at the thought of losing his kids, his breaths were labored as he thought about them being crushed under all of the rubble. Then he thought of Steve and whether he would have survived something like that and he could feel something inside of him break a little. He couldn’t lose all of them, not like this, especially not knowing what the hell had happened. He started hyperventilating, he couldn’t help but panic because after all they’ve been through for this to happen. It took him a moment to get his breathing under control, he couldn’t afford to lose his mind at the moment. He needed to assess the situation and figure out what happened. The last thing he remembered was Carol yelling something over the com line to Steve. 

Digging himself out of the rubble, the first thing he saw was a dark cloud of dust, the entire area was a charred mess around them. Not far from where he was standing, he could see the red white and blue of Steve’s shield, which meant that his husband was nearby. Picking up the shield he went looking for Steve, while looking around for the others. 

“What’s happening Fri?” he asked as he walked forward. 

“A ship has entered the upper atmosphere, I’ve sent a distress call to our allies' boss, but it seems as though it came through the Quantum machine in the compound,” she said and he wondered maybe if his reservations about Nebula earlier weren’t unfounded. He saw Steve nearby half buried in rubble, he was breathing, which was a relief for Tony. One found everyone else to go. 

“Where’s Carol?” he asked as he started digging Steve out. 

“I currently don’t have her whereabouts, my systems for the compound are down Boss,” she said and he could feel his heart breaking. He found Steve but without FRIDAY, finding everyone else is going to take a little work. 

“Get all the coms online and working, even the ones in the kids’ suits, start waking them up,” he said as he finally got everything off of Steve. “Alert me when they’re up okay.” 

“Yes Boss,” she said as he kneeled down next to Steve. 

It was one thing to be reminded of that vision he had from Wanda all those years ago, but to see Steve in the rubble like this, it was bringing back some awful memories. “Steve,” he called out as he retracted the glove before reaching out to check Steve’s pulse, sighing when he felt the steady beat of the man’s heart. “Come on buddy, time to wake up.” 

There was a groan, one Tony was familiar with, as Steve looked up at him, Tony was so happy to see the pair of bright blue eyes looking back at him. “That’s my man,” he said happiness in his voice. He stood up still holding the shield in his hand. “You lose this again and I’m giving it to Morgan.” 

“Funny,” Steve said groaning as he got up. “What happened? Are the kids okay, Carol was yelling earlier.” 

“If I had to guess, we messed with time, and it decided to mess with us,” he said as he started checking Steve for injuries. “As for the kids, I haven’t heard anything yet, FRIDAY is working on getting in contact with everyone.” 

“Are you okay,” Steve said placing his hands on Tony’s face. “Anything wrong with you?” 

“I’m alright, the suit took most of the force of a building falling on top of me, I was more worried about you, and everyone else.” 

“We’ll find them Tony,” Steve said to him with a smile. “We found each other once, it’ll happen again.” 

“Boss, Thanos is here,” Friday said over the com and Tony could feel his heart stop, time really was messing with them and it had brought a blast from the past with it. 

They looked at each other, and Tony knew that of all the things that could have happened this was not what they were expecting. “What did Carol say to you before we finished with the glove?” Tony asked trying to piece everything together. 

“She suspected that Nebula wasn’t our Nebula,” Steve answered, “You’re not thinking...” 

“That our Nebula got taken before they all returned and what came back was the version of her that was still trying to please her father,” Tony said wanting to scream, they had all been grieving to notice. “Life just takes and takes and takes, and just when we’re getting something good it decides to fuck with us all the same.” 

“For now, let’s take care of the Thanos problem, we’ll figure out the rest as we go,” Steve said before touching the side of Tony’s face. “Don’t die on me today.” 

“I can’t,” Tony said kissing Steve’s hand. “I have three kids to ground, and a husband to climb like a tree when this is all done.” 

Steve smiled at him, and it was all it took to give him a little confidence, he knew that he was trying to lighten up the mood even though everyone they knew was currently buried under the compound. The glove lost somewhere in there as well, and as long as Thanos didn’t have it, then they were going to fight to keep it from him. They both turned and walked towards where Thor was currently standing, the rubble not stopping him from looking at a figure not far in the distance. Even from where he was Tony knew that the bastard was smug as shit, he saw his plan worked, that in their time he had succeeded.  

“What’s he been doing?” Tony asked as they stood next to Thor. 

“Absolutely nothing,” Thor said, and Tony knew full well that Thor was ready to get his revenge on the Titan.  

“Where are the stones?” Steve asked as they watched Thanos sit down and look around at the destruction he’s caused.  

“Somewhere under all this. All I know is he doesn't have them, and he won’t get them either if I have a say in this,” Tony told them, he wasn’t going to let Thanos destroy their lives again. 

“So, we keep it that way, we need a plan,” Steve already in captain mode and while Tony was happy about it, he knew it was a fool's errand. 

“You know it’s a trap, right?” Thor said and Tony was sure of it too, but they needed to try. 

“Yeah, and I don’t much care for it, but we need to give the others some time to dig themselves out,” he told the god who nodded at him. 

“Good, just as long as we are all in agreement,” Thor said as the lighting engulfed him illuminating the area around them. Out of the rubble came Thor’s axe Stormbreaker, and Mjölnir, Thor now clad in full armor. “Let’s kill him properly this time.” 

There was something about walking over the rubble of something you built that made this whole thing a little too real. Tony had all but crawled out of Afghanistan fifteen years before, he was a different man, he became a husband and a father, he had saved the world countless times. But seeing their one failure sitting there in front of him, just brought forth a million feelings, and so many losses. He couldn’t stand to think of it happening all over again. 

“You could not live with your own failure. And where did that bring you? Back to me,” Thanos started, and of course the fucker was going to monologue, he was a villain, but it just pissed Tony off to have to hear him say anything at all. “I thought by eliminating half of life, the other half would thrive. But you’ve shown me that’s impossible. And as long as there are those that remember what was, there will always be those that are unable to accept what can be. They will resist.” 

“Yep, we’re all kinds of stubborn,” Tony said and Steve looked at him with a smirk. 

“I'm thankful. Because now, I know what I must do,” Thanos says as he stands up in front of them. “I will shred this universe down to its last atom,” he put on that god forsaken helmet and Tony just wanted to find a way to rip it off his head and shove it up the titan’s ass. “And then...With the stones you've collected for me, create a new one. Teeming with life, but knows not what it has lost but only what it has been given. A grateful universe.” 

“Born out of blood,” Steve said his shield raised.  

“They'll never know it. Because you won't be alive to tell them,” Thanos answered and honestly that was going to be the reason why Tony shoved a boot up his ass.  

Tony was the first to take flight, Thor not far behind, they both wanted blood, now more than ever, they had lost too much, even now years after the decimation they were still losing those they cared for, all because they wanted to bring everyone back. The hits weren’t going through, he wasn’t sure how much they were going to have to work for it, but they needed to keep it going. Just the thought that somewhere was that stupid Chitari army, Thanos’ attack dogs, all of it, and everyone they cared about, all of their lives were on the line. 

An idea formed as Thor was thrown back, “Okay, Thor, I need you to hit me with everything you’ve got.” 

Thor grunted and used both the hammer and the axe to bring down his lighting on Tony’s suit, using the suit’s back panels he absored the blast and sent it right at Thanos. The blast was huge, but he wasn’t sure if it was big enough to take Thanos down. Just as he thinks it’s working, he sees Mjölnir fly by, the distraction had been enough for Tony’s fire power to faulter, enough for Thanos to grab him and use him as a shield against the hammer and it hit him and sent him flying. 

“Boss, wake up,” FRIDAY called but the pain was enough to knock him out. 

Steve watches as Tony’s sent flying, his heart can’t take watching Tony die, he’s not sure if he could survive losing Tony after everything. Using his shield, he charges at Thanos but is immediately pushed back, he tries again but the Titan all but throws him across the field.  

“Dad,” he hears Miles’ voice over the com line. “Anything we can do to help, we’re almost out.” 

“Just find the stones,” he grunts out, happy to hear his kids are safe. “They’re in a glove, but I don’t know where it landed.” 

“I will help them,” Vision’s voice rang out loud and clear. “I have kept your children safe, now it is time for me to help as well.” 

“Vision, keep an eye on them, we’ll give you all some time,” Steve said as he slowly stood up.  

“We’re on it,” Kamala said her voice cheery, especially when they’re faced with the end of the world. It was all he needed to get up and keep fighting. 

He remembered once, a long time ago, what feels like another lifetime ago, when they were all standing in the Tower’s living area, when they had all joked about being able to lift Thor’s hammer. He denied feeling the power flow through his hands all of those years ago, even now after everything he’s put them all through, he doesn’t think himself worthy, but if it would save them all he would try. There was something about Mjölnir, it called out to those who were worthy of wielding it, it was pure power, and even when he denied it, he could feel it’s call. He saw as Thanos was fighting Thor, as Thor’s own weapon was used against him. Steve reached for that part of himself that he had denied so much, he reached out for Mjölnir and saw the hammer floating up before it flew towards him.  

Thor was looking at the hammer the whole time, not paying attention to the axe that would have severed his hand. “I knew it,” Thor calls out with a smile on his face, as Steve sends the hammer flying at Thanos, before it hits the Titan on the head. Thor was smiling at him, as the hammer came flying back, the power greater than anything Steve’s ever held, but if it saves his friend, if it saves them all, he was going to use it. Thanos had gotten up and kicked Thor back to the ground before charging at Steve, so Steve thinks about what he could do. 

There had been a moment back before the battle of New York, where Thor had hit the shield with the hammer, it had become a move that they had prefected over the years, but doing it alone was going to be a feat. Steve threw the hammer only calling it back when Thanos was close enough and had it hit the shield with all the power it could, sending a shockwave towards the Titan, throwing him backwards. As he watched the mad man stand up, Steve called on Thor’s power, taking a running start as he felt the power of the lightning hit him, but he used it to hit Thanos in the face with everything he could, knocking him back. 

He knew it wasn’t enough, he knew that he was just buying them all some time, because as strong as Steve was, he wasn’t stronger than Thanos.  

“Together,” he heard Tony whisper, which distracted him for a moment, but it was all he needed to keep going even as Thanos’ double sword smashed down on the shield severing it in half and sending him flying across what had once been their home, and into the ground. 

Tony was alive, the kids were alive, and they were all fighting, this was no time to give up, even though he could feel his hands shaking, even though his body felt like Morgan’s favorite pudding, he needed to keep trying. Digging the shield to the ground he stood up, taking the leather strap of the shield and tightening it, it reminded him of the first shield he had back in his USO days.  

“In all my years of conquest...violence...slaughter... It was never personal,” Thanos said as Steve looked up at him. “But I'll tell you now... what I'm about to do to your stubborn, annoying little planet... I'm gonna enjoy it. Very, very much.” 

Thanos didn’t know the true stubbornness of Steve Rogers, he was the same guy who continuously tried to get into the army, the guy who relentlessly went after Hydra, the guy who woke up displaced out of time, and still fought with everything he had. He had something to fight for now too, he had his family to fight for, his husband, his kids. 

“You don’t know stubborn,” Steve said looking at Thanos, his face covered in dirt and grime. “You haven’t seen stubborn.” 

With a smirk on his face, Thanos calls forth an army larger than the one Steve had seen in Wakanda five years before. He wants to run at him, if it meant protecting the ones he loved, he’d take down the world.  

“Need some help there,” Riri said as she landed next to him in her Iron Heart suit, the same colors as Tony’s Iron Man suit, with a little hint of his daughter. 

“We’re here to help,” Kamala said as she landed next to her sister, placing Lila, who was now wearing a purple outfit Steve’s never seen before, next to her America running up to them like she’s ready for a fight, just as Miles swings up and lands next to him giving him a pat on the shoulder.  

“It’s a family business,” Miles said with a shrug, Vision landing next to Miles, his powers fully operational, which meant that Shuri had been able to finish, with time to spare, this time around. 

“You’re still grounded young man,” Tony said as he landed next to them all, pulling back the helmet and looking over at Steve with a wink. Steve couldn’t help but feel relived at the sight of them, they were all safe. 

All of a sudden, he could hear a slight crackling in his ear, “Cap, you hear me?” Sam said, his voice as clear as it had been five years ago. It worked, they brought them back, Tony looked over at him with a smile on his face. “Cap, it's Sam. Can you hear me?”  

“It worked,” Tony said, just as Sam said “On your left.” 

He couldn’t help but laugh at the same words he had uttered to Sam the first time he had met the man. Just as the words had finished bright golden portals appeared around them, they had been a few just a moment ago and now he saw as Okoye, stepped through with the Black Panther next to her, Shuri smiling as she ran forward from another portal, which looked like it had come from somewhere in the buried compound. Shuri threw herself at her brother but got a knowing look from Okoye for leaving Wakanda without telling her. A moment later, Sam’s Falcon armor flys over them just as dozens of other portals appear around them.  

Out of one of the portals, Doctor Strange steps forward, and from the looks of it those who had perished on Titan five years before stood next to him. Steve couldn’t help but smile when Spiderman landed next to Kamala, while his son stood stunned as he saw the Iron Spider armor that Tony had told him about.  

“Dad, I want one like that,” Miles said to Tony. 

The armies from Zandar, and the Ravengers came from one of the portals, Duranna and her father heading one of the groups. More and more people he hadn’t known would show up suddenly appeared, Valkyrie flying out on a Pegasus, along with Sif and the rest of Asgard’s warriors. The Wakandan army walking through, he could see Bucky looking at him, a sad look on the man’s face, which meant that Natasha hadn’t come back. Steve wasn’t sure how Bucky knew, but he would have to ask later about it. Next to Buck was Groot, who had landed next to Rocket, just as Wanda walked out, stunned to see Vision standing there next to them. 

He remembered Tony saying that she was going to need someone to come home to, and now she had that and didn’t know how. But Tony would explain, as soon as they dealt with the fight ahead. The Wasp stood next to Ant-man taking Scott’s hand, they had survived one fight, now that they had their family back, they would need to survive this one. With a surprise landing, Pepper stood next to Tony with a smile. 

“What you didn’t think that I knew about the suit, your daughter is a blabbermouth,” she said to Steve and Tony. 

“Is that everyone?” Doctor Strange said as a tired looking Wong stood next to him. 

“What, you wanted more?” Wong said exasperated. 

Before Strange could answer, Hulk, and War Machine took their places, as Carol landed next to Rhodes. This was their family, these were the people they had fought so hard to bring back, and he wasn’t going to let Thanos take them away, not again.  

With a quick kiss to Tony, he took a deep breath, “Don’t die,” he said before turning to Thanos’s army, “AVENGERS,” he called out as everyone took their place, calling out to Mjölnir as he yelled out. “ASSEMBLE.” 

“What the hell,” Sam called out, there was no answer as everyone else charged forward towards the hoard rushing towards them. 

“Fight first, answers later,” Steve said as he fought through the hoard. 

Honestly, he couldn’t remember when was the last time he had been in this much pain, but watching Steve fight was good enough to keep going. They had almost everyone back, Natasha was still missing and it hurt to think about it. Tony hadn’t missed that look on Barnes’s face, but he didn’t have time to dwell on that while an army of aliens were trying to kill them. That big ugly guy from five years ago caught him by surprise, punching him to the ground. 

“Gods that hurts,” he said before watching Giant-Man kicking him away before rushing towards more of Thanos’s army. 

He needed a moment, he needed to breathe, he wasn’t sure where the gauntlet was in all of this fighting, and he really didn’t have time to stop while a war waged on around them. Before he could take another step forward a very family suit landed not far from him, before Peter’s face appeared in front of him. 

“Hey! Holy cow. You will not believe what's been going on. Do you remember when we were in space? And I got all dusty? I must've passed out, 'cause I woke up, and you were gone,” Peter said but Tony couldn’t help but look at him in awe, even after all of these years the kid could babble on without any other thought. “But Doctor Strange was there, right? He was like, "It's been five years. Come on, they need us!" And then he started doing the yellow sparkly thing that he does all the time...” 

Tony couldn’t help but hug the teenager, he knew May would be happy to see him more than anyone else. “What are you doing?” Peter said as tony gave him a kiss on the head, the same kind he gives to all of his kids before bed time” “...This is nice.” 

Before Tony could say anything else, Miles landed next to them, pulling back his mask and looking at Peter, “I like the suit man,” Miles said with a smile. 

“I like yours too,” Peter said before his eyes widened. “Oh my god you’re like me,” he said and Miles just smiled. 

“We’re Spider Bros,” Miles said which made Tony laugh, since it played on his and Bruce’s science bros joke. 

Before the two could bond even more a few of those attack dogs came at them, reminding them of the battle was still happening. Tony sees Clint before he hears him, the gauntlet in his hand as a few of the Chitari fighters were after him. 

“Cap, what do you want me to do with this damn thing?” Clint said, saved only by his own daughter’s arrows flying by him. 

“Get those stones as far away as possible!” Steve called out, and as much as he wanted to get them away, he wasn’t sure it was safe to do so. 

“No!” Shuri called out. “Remember what Doctor Banner said, We need to get them back where they came from.” 

“No way to get them back,” Tony said as they fought the Chitari around them, he saw their Nebula not far from them, he knew it was her because of the way she fought, and the glint of her blades as he saw her arm, half of which was destroyed, he really was going to talk to her about maintenance, he didn’t have vibranium growing out of trees.  “Thanos destroyed the quantum tunnel.” 

“Hold on!,” he heard Scott call out. “That wasn’t our only time machine.” 

“Anyone see an ugly, brown van up there?” Steve asked and Tony laughed, it really was an ugly thing. 

“Yes! But you're not gonna like where it's parked,” Valkyrie said from above them. 

“Scott, how long you need to get that thing working?” Tony asked, hoping it wouldn’t take too long. 

“Maybe ten minutes,” Scott answered. “Maybe less with some help.” 

“You always have help,” Hope answered. 

“Get it started,” Steve called out. “We’ll get the stones to you.” 

“We're on it, Cap,” Hope said as her and Scott rushed off towards where Valkyrie pointed out the van. 

Tony watched as he took out another couple of fighters, with a little help from Pepper, then he saw Strange and he wondered if this was it, if this was what he had been talking about all those years ago. 

“Hey. You said one out of 14 million, we win, yeah?” he asked wanting something to hope for. “Tell me this is it.” 

“If I tell you what happens, it won't happen,” Strange answered and Tony wanted to throttle the man. They had lost everything, it had taken so long to get to this point, when all the man had had to do was turn back time five years ago, or find a way to send them to Wakanda where Steve had been fighting. 

“You better be right,” he said frustrated with the other man. “I’m not going to lose my family twice,” he rushed off towards the next battle, watching as everyone fought for their lives 

He watched as everyone fought, keeping an eye on whoever needed help, there were so many people fighting with them, so many more lives at stake, he couldn’t figure out what it was going to take to end the fight for good.  

“Uh, is anyone else seeing this?” he heard Pepper’s voice, only to turn and see Peter being overwhelmed. 

“I got this. I got this! Okay, I don't got this,” Peter was chanting before calling out “Help! Somebody, help!” 

“Hey, Queens. Heads up,” Steve called, and then Tony saw Thor’s hammer flying across the sky, picking Peter up on the way, right before Pepper caught him. 

“Hang on. I got you, kid,” she said before dropping him on Valkyrie's Pegasus. 

Tony was too distracted to notice what was happening until Sam called out, “What the hell is this?” 

“F.R.I.D.A.Y., what are they firing at?” Tony called out as he watched more ships appear. 

“Multiple ships just entered the upper atmosphere,” FRIDAY said as they watched them slowly come down. 

Before any of them could react to what could have been a world ending attack, Carol flew up and took them down one by one, Tony could hear Rhodey whistling out at his girlfriend, he was proud of his girl and he wasn’t afraid to show it. Tony was glad that his friend had found her after all of these years, even happier that they had found each other. Tony worked to make sure the debris didn’t hit anyone, even with the fighting, something like that falling on them would still take them out. 

“Airforce, we need an assist here,” Steve called out, bringing Tony’s attention back to Peter, but before he could do anything, he saw Carol take the gauntlet from him and with the help of all of the women, as she rushes forward to get the thing to where Scott was, the van fired up and ready. Tony works his way towards where they’re fighting, trying to find a way to help Carol, but Thanos got to her, and as powerful as she was, she the gauntlet was hindering what she could do. He was looking over to where everyone else was trying to figure out if anyone was close enough to stop it, but then he saw Strange, as he raised up one finger at no one else but Tony and he knew that this was it, this was the moment Strange had been talking about. 

Tony had seen what that thing had done to Hulk’s arm, he’s heard from Steve about what it had done to Thanos’s arm five years before. If he did this he knew that he wasn’t going to survive, there was no coming back from this, if had had more time he would have been able to make his suit control the power of the stones, but they hadn’t thought this would have happened. 

“Shit,” he said reminding himself of the family he had, the little girl who was about to lose her father. 

“Tony,” Steve called out worried, but Tony didn’t listen, he couldn’t, he watched as Thanos took the glove from Carol headbutting her, fighting her until he had the glove. 

Rushing forward he grabbed the Titan’s hand, he had one shot at this, he had to save his family, he had to protect them because he couldn’t lose them again. “I’m sorry Steve,” he said as he pulled the stones off of the glove, just as Thanos pushed him away. 

“Tony,” Steve called out. 

“I am... inevitable,” Thanos said as he snapped his fingers, but nothing happened, the Titan shocked as he watched the stones light up in Tony’s hands. 

He could see Steve standing there staring at him, it was a short moment, but in that moment, Tony could see the look of loss in his eyes when he realizes what Tony was going to do. “I love you,” Tony whispered as he felt the power rushing through him. 

“And I...am...... Iron Man,” he said before snapping his fingers. 

He didn’t ask for anyone to be dusted, he didn’t ask for anything other than more time with his loved ones, and a second chance, he wanted Natasha to have her second chance, he wanted Peter and his friends to grow up normal, he wanted his kids to have never lost their families, and he just wanted Steve to be there with him for the rest of their lives, happy and healthy. Just as the power took over, and the pain set in, he could feel as the blinding light took him, and settled over him. This was his end, and there was nothing to stop it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few things, Tony will be back  
> I have a head canon that Lila Barton, in the future secretly fights under an alias, as in to hide it from her dad she becomes Kate Bishop, hence America and Kate are very much a couple in this story.  
> I added that you're just like me line for Peter and Miles to reference Into the Spiderverse.  
> Lastly, the next five chapters are going to be interesting to write, but you'll see why.  
> The Army/Airforce thing between Steve and Carol is more of a reference to their Avengers Assemble counterparts.  
> Now I'm going to go cry for a while, because I had to write this entire chapter and it hurt my soul.  
> See you next time.


	9. To Begin Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes everything that once was, will not always come to be

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is told in snippets from two points of view, so that we wouldn’t have to go through the whole 22 movie cycle again, except with some glaring changes to the story overall.... It took a long time for me to write this, I couldn’t get it right and it may never be right, but it’s only here to move the plot forward. 
> 
> The other reason it took so long is because I was writing for Cap-Iron Man Big Bang, so please look forward to that being posted soon. I also started the Bookstore AU, so I'm going to divide my time between both stories, hopefully I'll be able to post on each every other week until they're done.

There was nothing, he felt nothing but emptiness, he wasn’t sure who he was, all he was sure of was that in the vastness of his surroundings, he was the only living being. It was cold where he was, so cold, he could feel it growing from inside as he shivered, though he couldn’t see where it was coming from. Something glowed from his hand, something glowed from his chest, it was the only light in the sea of darkness.

“Who am I?” he said to the emptiness, feeling nothing but a deep sense of loss. There was something missing, something warm, almost as if he could reach out and touch where the warmth should be. It wasn’t there, nothing was there, his hand went through the air searching for something solid but he just continued to be.

“Stone wielder,” a silent voice said, he wasn’t sure how he heard it. “We will grant you your wish, but only you and those who have had contact with us during this journey will have memories, inkling s  i f  you may, of what had transpired in their lives, but you will remember all, and only when the moment is right for you to remember. Until then you must all relive your lives as they once were. Some things you may all change, not all, for certain pains are suffered for a reason.”

* * *

 

Tony woke with a silent scream in his lungs, he was alone at home, his parents had left a few hours before, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. His hands had been clawing at his bare chest, nail marks marring his skin, a cold sweat all over his body. It had felt like a nightmare, but he couldn’t remember of what, all he remembered was the feeling of being alone in a cold dark place . Rushing off to the bathroom, he found himself heaving into the toilet, telling himself that it was nothing but a dream, that he wasn’t alone at all. It took him a while to actually stand up and wash away the sweat and tears that had come from throwing up. While standing in front of the mirror he saw the red marks on his chest, for some reason they formed a circular pattern on his chest, as if he only scratched around something that should have been there, except there was nothing there.

The strangest feeling washed over him as he tried to clean the cuts, like something was missing, a part of his heart, but he couldn’t feel that way, he was just a college student, well actually at this point he was working on multiple Ph.D.'s but that didn’t really matter. Yet the empty part of himself yearned for something, and he couldn’t figure out what it could have been.

As he walked into his room, he saw the old Captain America poster he had put up as a child, he swore he had taken it down at some point before he had gone off to school. His father must have put it back  up,  his father always told him never to disrespect the Captain. Which was fucked up on its own merit because the man rarely paid attention to his own son, but a guy he knew for two seconds during the war was more important. Tony stood there for a moment and looked at the picture of the man with a plan, and couldn’t help but feel calm. The sight of the Captain over the years had irritated him, but now it feels different, almost as if he were meant to be there watching over Tony. The longer he stared the stranger he felt before he felt something cold stab him in the heart, that feeling of something missing there once again. 

The whole incident, feeling, whatever he wanted to call it, would be pushed aside because a few moments later  as  Jarvis rushed into his room, and Tony’s whole world changed. His parents had died in a car accident on their way to the airport, Tony Stark was now an orphan.

* * *

 

Sometimes she felt cold, it was Russia anyone would feel the cold, but the Red Room made sure to keep them at an uncomfortable temperature, they told her it was for training, but all it felt like was pain. The same pains she suffered through training, as they made her kill someone in her training class just because the other girl had betrayed them. She didn’t want to do it, but if she didn’t ,  they would kill her as well. They didn’t know that she cried that night, she wouldn’t make a sound as the tears fell down her face.  This was her life, she woke up, she trained to kill, and every once and a while, she found a little bit of peace, before it started all over again.

It was during this time, where she met the Winter Soldier, he had no other name to them he was their trainer and that was all. When they realized that she excelled in everything they taught her, they gave her to him, more training, but this time in fighting and espionage, this was when she knew that she was going to pass their tests. The longer they worked together, the more she got to know him, he had a name, she had asked once, he had said it was James, but he wasn’t allowed to use it. When they were  alone,  she would call him by his name, as he would call her by hers, no one needed to know this, and for once it felt good to defy her handlers and have something all on her own.

In the weeks since they began training, she started to fall in love, it was a strange sensation since she had been in the red room since she was a child and not once had she ever had any love for anyone, she was nearly twenty-one and she had never had this feeling before. She kept it a secret, even from the man she loved, it would only get them hurt in the end. Her first mission was coming up, the one that would determine whether she would finally graduate from the Red Room and work for the  Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti , the KGB, a week before the mission she was injected with something and put through a rigorous test. She passed it all of course, though she didn’t know what they had given her, not that it mattered.

The mission would last a month, in deep cover, with the Winter Soldier as her only link to the Red Room. If she succeeded, she would get what they called the procedure and move away from the days of being a trainee in the Red Room. They found themselves deep in the Siberian wilderness, the cold unbearable most nights, but she noted the clarity in James’ eyes the longer they were away from their handlers. He would tell her stories, they sounded made up, of a war that they never fought in, they were both too young to have been in the second world war, but it felt almost as if he had lived it. Slowly she saw the love she had for him grow into something deeper, he loved her too, but they never voiced it out loud, they couldn’t, but they also knew that everything had changed. 

She knew that something was going to happen either during the mission or after it had ended, she was unsure of where the knowledge came from, and she knew that feelings shouldn’t substitute facts, but she understood deep down in her heart that if she didn’t do something, she would lose everything. James was the only reason why she would willingly defy her handlers, he was the only reason she was sure of, that she could survive. He had given her something she hadn’t really had in her entire life, he had given her hope.

He was her first kiss, her first love, her first everything. But it would end in tragedy, all things did in the end.

_ Love is only for children _ , she had been told as they had taken him away, she never knew where, they taken her and put her in a small dark windowless room. They left her there for three days without food or water, she never showed them weakness, she refused, so she sat and waited. They pulled her out and took her to the procedure room, but she refused to do what they wanted, she refused to be their puppet. She had fought long enough to grab a nearby scalpel, one they would have used on her.  _ They shouldn’t have trained her to kill _ , she thought as she took them out one by one. By the end, she had escaped and vowed only to return and deal with her handlers. She didn’t want to allow them the chance of doing to others what they had done to her, to take away what was most precious and kill all of the humanity a person had. 

They never saw her when she came, she had killed the people responsible for taking her away from her family as a small child first, she freed the little girls that they had captured that night. She went after her handlers right after, James had taught her how to fire a rifle, and so they never saw the bullet coming. She intergraded herself into their lives, becoming different women each and every time, she poisoned them, strangled them, they wouldn’t remember the face of the one that had gotten away, not when they taught her their best secrets.

She never found James again.

But SHIELD found her, Clint brought her in, convinced SHIELD that she was worth the effort, that she could work for them. They gave her a  purpose,  they handed her a life she had once thought was impossible.  Even when she lost the one person that had meant everything to her.

* * *

 

Tony woke up in a cold sweat, he could tell something was wrong because even though he had fallen asleep in bed with that reporter, his mind went somewhere else. He dreamt of a bomb going off in deep space, a massive black hole in the background swallowing him up as his heart slowed and he saw death in front of him. It had him waking up near screaming, before he left his own room and hid down in the workshop of his Malibu home. The moment he locked himself into the room he realized that he couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t focus on anything, like something was trying to drag him into some kind of darkness. He wanted a drink, but instead he walked up to one of his cars and sat there staring at the wall at the far end, wondering if it was too bare, like something should have been there. There was a moment where he thought that he had stood there while arguing with Pepper, but that’s something that had never happened.

“What’s happening to me?” he asked no one in particular. His bots whirled to life in the background, but even they couldn’t answer his questions, he was alone in the room, with his own thoughts to haunt him. 

It had been happening since his parents’ deaths, memories of another life, never whole enough to figure out what they were other than dreams. More like nightmares that had left him scared and in a cold sweat. There were days when he couldn’t stand to see his own bathtub, and showering had becoming impossible. Other days the darkness of his own bedroom had scared the shit out of him, almost like it was swallowing him whole. He sometimes got too hungry and ate everything he could find as if it would keep him from dying, or there was a bright light somewhere haunting him. Just being around Obie had freaked him out more than once and there was  no explanation  for it.

There had been a therapist, well actually there had been several, since he couldn’t keep one long enough, they said that there was some kind of guilt haunting him, well not in those words. The guilt manifesting because of his parents’ deaths, of losing them, of not getting the chance to truly say goodbye to them. They said that he blamed himself for not being able to prevent it from happening, almost as if he could have changed the course of his life if he had.

“Nothing can change,” he had told them, “Everything happened already, nothing could change at all.”

The latest dreams never felt like guilt over his parents, more like guilt over something else, something that he wasn’t sure of. Something was missing from his life and no amount of trying to find it was changing that fact.

The next day he was on a plane to Afghanistan for a weapons demonstration, hours later he had a car battery in his chest and nothing but pain following him around. Months after that, he had lost the only friend he had made in that cave, and he knew that Obie’s presence in his life felt wrong. Something about his life was wrong, because  

* * *

 

The nightmares haunted her, sometimes she was falling off of a cliff, others she watched as everyone she loved and cared for disappeared. Their faces blurred, she didn’t know them too well, but at the center was James, holding her hand promising her everything before fading into nothingness. She would wake up screaming, which was especially bad if she was on a mission because people could hear her, but she didn’t know what to do. Clint was her  partner,  he would walk her through everything as she had started out. He quickly saw a need for her skill set and he put her through her paces. Agent Coulson was her handler, and the first person other than Clint and Fury that she trusted beyond a reasonable doubt.

After that she met others, people she would consider family, those who she believed would want her around as a human and not an asset. Clint introduced her to his wife and his newborn son, constantly referring to her as Auntie Nat, it had made her feel like she belonged somewhere. 

The first time she saw James, years after they had been separated, she had been protecting someone for SHIELD, she had been sloppy and distracted. That blank stare, no hint of recognition, something pulled her heart apart as she watched him. He pulled the trigger without hesitation, without remorse, killing the engineer that she had been protecting. He walked away from her without looking back and it broke her heart to watch as she lay there bleeding out.

She had to stay in the hospital for three days, her mission had been a failure, and when she got out, she stayed at home thinking about James and why it was that he had not recollection of her. Clint told her to get better, but instead she poured all the time she could on looking up the Winter Soldier looking to see if SHIELD had anything on him. All that came back was that he was a ghost, but she knew just how real he was, she knew the man that lived inside of the asset, and she needed to find out why he had lost all of his memories. The search consumed her thoughts, while she worked, she was always looking for him, even though she knew that there was no way that she would encounter him again, not if his handlers wanted to keep him a secret.

Then her next big assignment came, she was sent into Stark Industries, they wanted her to assess Stark to see if he would be a good fit for Fury’s Avengers Initiative, but she knew that it was Coulson’s way of getting her to slow down, to get her to stop looking for a ghost from her past.

* * *

 

The moment he saw her something sparked in his mind, it wasn’t tangible enough to hold onto, but he knew that she was someone important, someone he should know. But he was dying, the thing in his chest was slowly killing him so for all he knew that spark had been something ridiculous. Too many nightmares haunting him, some from the cave in Afghanistan, others from the deep dark recesses of space. Nothing mattered.

So, he hired her as his assistant, something told him to keep her close, that losing her would be like losing  Rhodey , or Pepper, or Happy, like it had been when he had lost Jarvis, like the day he had lost his mother. 

“There’s something about her,” he told JARVIS the A.I. as DUM-E swept something in the corner.

He was alone in his workshop, looking over the schematics on the Arc Reactor in his chest, trying to find a way to keep him alive. To keep himself from dying before he could figure out why somethings that didn’t make any sense to him, were haunting his life. Until he could figure out what was going on , he was going to keep trying to stay alive. He was going to keep being Iron Man even if it killed him, he needed to atone for what he had neglected.

It wasn’t until after the assessment with Fury had gone through, when Natasha’s words were ringing through his head, when Pepper’s kiss felt like something wasn’t right, he still cared for her but it didn’t feel like... well like home to him. As he stood outside SHEILD with his new heart, as Natasha stood next to him a distant look in her eyes.

“You feel it too don’t you,” he said to her and she just nodded. “It feels something’s missing and we can’t figure out what it is?”

“I’ve been feeling that way for a long time, it doesn’t make sense, at least not until I started working with you,” she told him as SHIELD agents walked all around them. “So, what do we do now?”

“We become Avengers,” he said with a smile. “Although apparently I’m not qualified.”

“I doubt that would keep you from being on the team,” she smiled back and Tony had an odd sense come over him, she was family, his family, and he needed to protect her.

After their talk Natasha had been sent on a mission to Budapest, while Tony found himself searching the Artic around where his father’s notes had said that Captain America’s plane would have gone down. He wasn’t sure why he was searching for the Captain all he knew was that he needed to find out if the man lived. It had come to him in a dream, they were fighting together somewhere in Europe, he didn’t know where, but it had felt so real he wondered if the man lived.

It had sounded stupid in his head, but it stemmed from meeting Natasha for the first time, as she appeared in his dreams as one of the mysterious figures haunting him. He thought that it had been too much of a coincidence to forgo completely, she had said the same thing to him about her co-worker who she had met a few years earlier. 

While on a break he took a look at his father’s notes once again, he found something about a stop that had been made while looking for the Captain, they had picked up something on the ocean floor but what it had been Tony didn’t know. Whatever it was involved the Captain’s last fight with Hydra, so he put pen to paper, because for some reason the newest Stark Pad wasn’t working in the Artic conditions, he would have to fix that, so he was left to write his calculations by hand. It never made sense that the plane had gone down where his father had said, especially if it was going at top speeds towards the United States, even if they had dropped something along the way they would have found the plane soon after.

Changing the coordinates to match the speed of the plane he wrote down to the ten square miles that could have been the drop point. Adding another twenty square miles in case the plane had turned in any direction both during flight and in the years since. The landscape around him constantly changed, the weather conditions were the reason for it mainly, between global warming and those bouts of Artic air coming down over the years, the Captain’s plane could have changed course and no one would have known.

His phone rang, because of course the damn SAT phone worked in these conditions, “Hello,” he answered as he finished up his work and packed everything up.

“Tony, we need you in New York,” Pepper’s voice called out. “I don’t even know why I approved this little trip of yours when we’re in the middle of building the Tower.”

“What happened now, I left detailed instructions for the whole week just so that I could take this trip, there was no way that they could have messed anything up,” he said to the phone as the rest of the expedition team worked around him. “Unless they lost them.”

“Nothing is lost, it’s the reactor, it’s not linking up to the tower, and we’ve been in the dark for a few hours now, and I know that we’re not off the grid yet, but you told us to check it today, it was on the schedule and to call you if anything went wrong and well... things went wrong.  So,  get back over here, I know you can because you never leave without one of your suits going with you.”

She wasn’t wrong about that, he had one of them stored on the ship. “I’ll be on my way, let me call someone into continue overseeing the search.”

“Why are you looking for him anyway, I thought you hated Captain America,” she said to him and while she knew about it, there was still that little boy inside of him that wanted to find the Captain.

“It’s just something I saw in my father’s notes, I wanted to see if I could finish something else that he had started,” because while his relationship with his father hadn’t been the best, the video from the Expo had brought back that need to once again be the son he wished he had been before his parents had died.

He called the one person at SHIELD that he trusted, well outside of Natasha but she was on another mission and he wasn’t going to disturb her, she told him that she was going dark for a little while, and he wasn’t willing to compromise her safety.

“Agent Coulson,” the voice answered.

“Hey Agent, I need someone in the Artic, someone trust worthy,” he said as he started unlocking the suit. 

“Stark, what are you looking for in the Artic, because if it’s not serious I won’t send someone at all, last time I lent you an Agent they came back crying.”

“I’m looking for a Freezer Pop,” he said taking off his coat feeling the blast of cold air hit him. “Well it’s more like a Capsicle.”

“You’re looking for Captain America,” Coulson’s surprise wasn’t what he was expecting but then  again,  he remembered the man’s face when he had seen the prototype shield.

“Yes, and I have a work emergency so if you would be so kind as to send someone up here to put up where I left off that would be great. I’ll even send you the coordinates to where the Captain might have died.”

“What do you want with the Captain, Stark?”

“I’m just tying up some of my dad’s loose ends Coulson nothing more,” he opened up the suit, he had made it specifically for this trip, it would keep him warm while he flew over the open areas while making it possible to excavate things with precision lasers.

“I’ll send a  quinjet  with one of my best guys, his mission in New Mexico was finished, so he’s free, but Stark if we find the Captain.”

“Just make sure he gets a proper burial Coulson,” Tony said before hanging up the phone, for some reason talking about Captain America’s death wasn’t sitting right with him.

He hadn’t waited for Coulson’s man to show up, he had work to do, regardless of whether Pepper was the CEO, he was still the head of the company, it had his name on it. If Coulson trusted the guy, Tony would too.  Hopefully nothing would go wrong and this would just be another thing that he was finishing for his father.

* * *

 

Honestly, it was his own fault, it had taken him almost six weeks since he left the Artic to get the tower up and running, finally taking it off of the city’s power grid. The thing lit up in the sky, but in his mind, it wasn’t enough, there was something missing. He blamed his dreams that had shown him a glass tower that shined blue in the distance, but it wasn’t right, not yet and he wasn’t sure why. 

That was when Coulson arrived telling him about calling him into consult on something called the Tesseract, before handing Pepper a laptop. That’s where he saw the picture of the good old Captain staring back at him.

“Was he alive?” he asked as he looked over at Coulson for confirmation.

“We found him not long after you left, we were  thawing  him so that we could bury him and it turned out that he was alive.”

He was floored, literally, he thought that there had been a chair behind him and literally fell to the floor, because Captain America was alive and he was going to be a part of Fury’s little boy band. Ignoring Pepper and Coulson talking he looked up at the holograms staring back at him. All of the faces were familiar, like he’s known them all along, but it wasn’t possible if this was the first time, he was seeing them. With the exception of Natasha and of course the good Captain who he’s seen reels of the man from his father’s collection, but even  then,  the connection hadn’t been made.

“Tony get off the floor,” Pepper said to him but he just waved her away. “ Honestly  I don’t know what to do with him, he’s been really weird ever since that whole evaluation SHIELD gave him.”

Tuning them out he looked at the information in front of him, the Tesseract was something else, the scepter that was talked about, he knew had something inside of it, this was information that he shouldn’t have and yet just looking at the images and the documents in front of him he already knew that there was something about them that were important. It was there in his mind, but he couldn’t pin point what it was and he knew that it should matter. He stayed there on the floor reading through all of the notes, not bothering to get up and move at all. He hadn’t even realized when Pepper and Coulson had left, all he had was a note on the table from Coulson about a pick up time.

* * *

 

They fought, they fought a lot, not just Loki or the  Chitari , no they fought each other, and it left something heavy in his stomach, even after the whole fight Natasha had looked at him with a pitying look. He had sent everyone to bed, there were plenty of rooms that hadn’t been destroyed, but he was just standing there in the ruins of his living room. For months he had felt like he had been there before, then the inky blackness of space was all around him and the dread creeped up on him and swallowed him whole. He had wanted to hear something before he had died, but he had nothing and no one, something was missing from his life.

“Did you feel it,” Natasha said from behind him, making him jump and scaring him half to death.

“I almost died once today,” he said to her without preamble. “I don’t want to actually die because you like to sneak around.”

“Sorry, old habits, I tend to forget that you’re not a spy,” she said to him giving a small smile.

“Yeah well, I would like it if you made some kind of noise, it’s hard enough trying to stay sane when... well when everything that’s been happening, was something I dreamed about, and yes, before you ask again, I felt something, I don’t know but there’s something weird happening here.”

“Is it just us? Or do you think the others know, because their faces are the ones I see.”

“I don’t know Natasha, if I  did,  I wouldn’t be freaking out right now about this,” he said sighing to himself before walking over to the couch and sitting down. “Where do we go from here?”

“I don’t know, but for now we keep trying to figure this whole thing out,” she said as she sat next to him.

They sat there for a long  time,  the sun had started peaking over the horizon when they had both decided to go to bed. The next day Pepper yelled at him for flying a nuke into space, and he decided to divide his time between New York and Malibu, while Natasha told him that she was going to DC with Steve and Clint to work at SHIELD. The tower would need to be rebuilt, and he had some ideas, but he still had a company to take care of and a lot of things to figure out.

“Keep in touch,” he said smiling to her.

“I’ll try my best, but you know how it is,” she told him but he knew that she would call, she always did. 

* * *

 

After leaving New York, Natasha kept a close eye on Steve, making sure that he was integrating into his new world, all the while working missions with him. She tried to set him up a few times, but even those moments felt strange, almost as if it was wrong to even try. Every once and while she would get an update from Tony, until one day when she saw on the news that he was presumed dead. 

“I have to go,” she said to Fury as she slammed her hands down on the man’s desk. “He’s out there I know it.”

She had been sure of it, mainly because her dreams told her otherwise, and she knew it was stupid to think like that, as a way to tell the future, but since everything was happening the same way, she wasn’t going to deny the feeling that she needed to do something.

“It’s not your mission, I have people working on it, but I need you here with Rogers, I need you for an operation, there’s no getting out of it,” he said to her giving her a firm look, she’s been working with him on several things one of which is the fact that there’s something wrong with SHIELD from the inside and he wants to know who is involved. “I’m sorry Romanoff but there’s no getting out of it.”

Of course, she was angry, they were Avengers, they were supposed to protect their own, but the secrecy and all of the lies, sometimes came at a price. She had learned early on that the World Security Council was against the Avengers working within the United States or anywhere in the world. They were also the ones who had sent a nuclear weapon towards them while they were fighting an actual alien threat. They could have all died, but in the back of her mind she knew that it wasn’t going to happen, somehow, she knew that they would all survive. She knew that Tony was going to be alright, but  it  didn’t stop her from caring for her friend. 

Tony sent her a message as she was on her way to pick up Steve for their mission, he was alright, and she was relieved. She called him as the car made  its  way to the national mall where Steve jogged every morning.

“Listen, next time you want to die, do us all a favor and don’t,” she said the moment Tony had picked up the phone.

“Well it’s nice to hear from you too Natasha,” he said, though she could tell that he was tired, hell she was too, the dreams were getting more and more intense for both of them. “I’ll venture to stay alive from now on, though I’ve been thinking about that extremis project.”

“You’re not injecting yourself with something like that Stark,” she said knowing that he was going to ignore her, but she needed to try, at least to keep him from doing something stupid.

“I already did,” he said and she was ready to drive to wherever he was and smacking him.

“I swear Tony,” she started but he had started laughing in the background.

“I’m kidding Nat, I’m crazy sometimes but not that crazy, though the whole thing did give me an idea for something else, but it’s still in  its  early stages.”

“Just don’t do anything stupid, the dreams are enough to drive me crazy, but worrying about you is making it worse the last few days,” she sighed as she reached her destination. “Tony,” she called out to him and she knew that it was a long reach, she rarely called him by his first name. “I don’t know why they’re coming true, but  please, don’t  kill yourself trying to disprove them.”

“I won’t,” he said and she could hear the tiredness in his voice. “I’ll be in New York, since my Malibu house was destroyed.... and Natasha, the tower is ready, for whenever the Avengers decide to get back together.”

There was no whenever in their future, they knew that it was going to happen sooner than that, there was something in the backs of their minds, in some deep seeded memory, telling them that their futures, not just his and hers, but that of all of the Avengers, were about to collide with something greater than any of them have ever known.

* * *

Honestly speaking, he shouldn’t be surprised at what he was seeing on the news, he had gotten the alert from JARVIS that something was targeting him, the suit was already on him before the damn thing could fire. But it hadn’t been necessary, because Steve had blown all three Insight  Helicarriers  to the ground, and on top of him too boot, the man had no sense of self preservation. Without another thought he shot off into the sky and headed towards D.C., he was a man on a mission, for some reason he needed to know if Steve was alright. Something inside of him was telling him to make sure that Steve was alright. He knew that it had something to do with the dreams, hell Natasha had probably acted the same way when he had vanished, but this was different. It felt like something was being ripped out of him, which was a dumb idea since the reactor and the shrapnel were all still in the same place as they had been after the while incident in Miami.

He landed in the ambulance bay of the hospital, asking JARVIS to send the suit to whatever hotel they could get a room from. He honestly didn’t care, all the mattered was Steve, he wasn’t sure why it mattered either, they fought the moment they had their eyes on each other. Even when he felt like something had shot through him at the sight of Steve, he all but ignored it. 

“Tony,” Natasha’s voice called to him, from where he wasn’t sure. He was sure that she was going to pop out of somewhere, but the tap on his shoulder calmed him. “I’m not going to scare you every time you know,” she said before taking his hand. “Why are you here?”

“I don’t know, one minute I’m at the tower watching Rogers fall from the fucking Helicarrier, the next I’m in a suit and on my way here,” he said feeling like he was coming apart. “What’s wrong with me, Rogers doesn’t even like me, but for some reason I’m here like he means something to me.”

“I don’t know,” she said and he knew that she was going through something similar, “If I  did,  I would tell you, but somedays I swear that I’m going crazy.”

“You and me both,” he said to her. 

They sat in the waiting room, Sam Wilson nearby, he had introduced himself, but didn’t ask why Tony was there and not at home. Tony could tell that the man knew something was up, but whatever it was he wasn’t sure of, hell Tony wasn’t sure of it either. Once Steve was in recovery, after the doctors had to reopen his wounds to take out the bullets, after Steve woke up in the middle of surgery twice because his metabolism was eating through the anesthesia, after Tony nearly yanked his hair out trying to figure out why his mind was at war with itself, that was when he had finally gone home. He hadn’t stayed in D.C., but he had left the hotel room ready for Natasha or Sam to go to if they wanted to get some sleep.

“I’ll see you in New York,” he said to Natasha and she nodded just as he took off into the skies.

The need to run from his problems was strong, usually he went right for a bottle of alcohol but he wasn’t drinking heavily, not anymore, not after that last birthday party. Instead he went to the workshop and stared at his half-finished project, he didn’t feel like finishing it at all. He didn’t know what to do with himself, which was a strange feeling all on  its  own. He didn’t want to create the Iron Legion, something in the back of his mind told him to not do it, and he just stopped. The whole event in Washington was enough to keep him from going through with it.

Shutting everything down, he walked back to the communal area and grabbed the menu for the Chinese food place and ordered all of his favorites, comfort food was the only thing that he knew for sure wouldn’t cause him a headache. He had even put the call in for the food himself, which only astonished JARVIS but it didn’t matter.

That was where Natasha and Steve had found him weeks later, both with their bags in hand, Steve looking at little out of place.

“Don’t tell me that you’ve been sitting here eating this whole time,” Natasha said to him, though the amount of take out that had accumulated since that first night had grown, he had gotten up and gone to work several times. Though to be honest, all the food was fresh, he hadn’t eaten anything in three days, Pepper and Bruce had both threatened to lock him out of his workshop if he didn’t eat, so he caved and ordered in.

“I haven’t, I’m actually taking a break, I’m also waiting on Bruce to get back from the store,” he said honestly, “You guys are welcome to join us, we were going to watch a movie and relax, it’s mandated relaxation.”

“By who,” Steve asked as he took in all of the food.

“Pepper, she was annoyed that I worked too much the past couple of days, so I have been forced to take the night off,” he said sending Steve a quick grin, he wasn’t sure why he did it, it was honestly a reflex. “Just leave your stuff there and I’ll show you to your rooms later, or if you want you can have JARVIS direct you there and come down when you’re settled.”

“We have rooms here,” Steve said looking at him.

“Didn’t Natasha tell you,” Tony said looking over at the red head who was already digging into a carton of food. “Come on Nat, you were supposed to be on top of this.”

“Sorry, I had things to do, and we came up right after Fury’s funeral,” she said before digging into the noodles. “But now he knows.”

“She actually just drove us here, saying that my stuff would already be in my new place, though she didn’t say where my new place was,” Steve said as he looked over to where Natasha was sitting. “I guess you’re getting the team back together.”

“Nah, just giving you guys a home,” Tony said with a smile before digging into a carton of fried rice, his heart sped up as Steve smiled back at him. It was a strange sensation, and honestly it was one that he wouldn’t mind repeating. “Also, since you both killed  SHIELD,  I figured that we could work from here.”

“We’re not allowed to hide anything from each other,” Natasha said looking at the two of them, Tony could see something in her eyes but whatever it was involved Steve, and since he wasn’t ready to tell the other man about his impromptu trip to D.C. he was just going to ignore it.

* * *

 

They got the scepter back from Hydra, afterwards helping out in  Sokovia  because of the damage that Hydra had caused, Steve talking about the Twins, and why they were there. Something nagging at the back of Tony’s mind, something about the twins, almost like they were a part of something bigger, and he knew that they were going to be needed at some point. The dreams didn’t lie. On the way back to the tower, after they had squared away everything, and helped with the clean-up, Tony read through the readings on the stone, he wanted to figure out what was inside of it, but in his  mind,  he knew it was wrong.

Talking with Bruce about the scepter, hearing JARVIS say that the gem was a housing for something else, everything felt off for some reason. Their mission was technically done, and while he left Bruce to study the thing that was now nagging at the back of his mind, he walked away and he wasn’t sure why. This was the research he needed for the ULTRON Protocol, but it wasn’t worth it in his mind, the vision he had had in that Hydra bunker was enough to keep him from messing with something that was out of his league. 

“Hey Tony,” Steve’s voice rang out as Maria Hill walked off muttering about finding the Twins. “I just finished debriefing with Hill, she has some interesting notes on those kids we ran into.”

“They’re just kids,” Tony said his mind somewhere else, “Hydra took advantage of them, they used SHIELD as a way to  experiment  on innocent people.”

“Tony are you okay?” Steve asked but for Tony all he could remember was a doctor he had once known who had died in a cave just to buy him some time, and dreams that had been haunting him since the night his parents had died.

“I want to be, but honestly I think I need to do something,” and inventing wasn’t what he wanted to do, not at that moment. “Spar with me,” he said to Steve, “I’ll get the suit, you get your shield, and we’ll spar a little.”

“Are you sure, you seem a bit off.”

“I feel off, but I don’t want to mess with that scepter, as much as I want to study it, I don’t want to go near it right now,” he knew that Steve saw that manic look in his eyes, he was horrible at hiding it, Natasha was the only one who knew how to calm him down, especially when the dreams became too much. The problem was, that it wasn’t only the scepter, there was something else nagging at him since the vision of the  Chitari  leviathan had flown over his head, something cold and unforgiving. “Just help me tire myself out a little.”

Steve, good old Steve Rogers, just nodded at him before walking with him towards the elevator, “We don’t have a lot of time to spar, we have to get ready for the party,” Steve told him as they  descended  down towards the lowest levels of the tower.

“It’s fine, just thirty minutes tops, nothing more,” he said, all he wanted was to get out of his own head for a few minutes that was it. The party wasn’t going to start for a few hours but this was enough for him.

As they entered the gym, Tony looked around to see if anyone else was around, he didn’t like sparing in the suit if people were there, but with Steve’s increased strength, it was the best thing to do. Luckily it was empty, mostly because everyone was gearing up for the party in a few hours. Tony walked over to where his sparing suit was, because it was made to keep up with Steve or Thor whenever they were running through  scenarios

The both of them stood in the middle of the room, waiting for the other to make the first move, neither did, they always played this weird game just waiting until one of them move an inch, luckily in the suit Tony wouldn’t have to move much. Steve stood in front his shield on his arm ready for whatever Tony threw at him, the  replusor  power on the suit was lower than his other suits, mainly for stunning purposes nothing more, but it was enough to run scenarios when needed.

It was the moment that Steve smirked at him and threw him off a little, it wasn’t something he normally did, though there had been moments where Steve would give him the same smile while talking to when they were all together during movie nights. There was something about it that drew him to the other man, and it wasn’t a recent feeling, no, it was the same feeling he had gotten the same night he had decided to search the Arctic for the good old captain, the same feeling that came over him when Steve’s face was smiling at him after he had woken up after the Battle of New York, it was the same feeling that he got when Steve blew the  Helicarriers . There was something inside of him calling to Steve, and he was sure that the whole thing was an impossible dream, because Steve was straight, there was no denying that right.

The first punch landed on him, because of course Steve was waiting for him to be distracted, it made him step back for a moment, but it had jarred something inside of him. Almost as if he had once fought with Steve, and regretted it afterwards. The second hit came from the shield, and while Tony blocked it, it also caused him to step further back. The smile was still on Steve’s face, honestly it was a game they played and at the moment Steve was up by two. Tony pulled his arm back, getting ready to throw a punch when the shield slammed against the face plate of the suit.

Something wasn’t right, was all he could think about, he tried to block the next hit, but his mind was warring with his body, almost as if physically hitting Steve was something it didn’t want to do. His heart was racing, and he could feel some kind of inky blackness settle on the edges, but he kept blocking Steve’s hits.

“Tony you have to fight back or else it feels like you just want to get hit,” Steve told him, but instead something cold washed over him. Even as he put his arms up to fight, as he grabbed the shield before Steve could swing the thing towards him, his vision was tunneling and the dreams that he had been having for decades crystallized in his mind. They weren’t dreams, they were memories, and they were flooding into him all at once. His head ached, and he couldn’t hold back the whimper that came out of him as he fell to the ground. Steve was standing still just looking at him, as if the next moment would be critical.

“Sir...” JARVIS’s voice called out but Tony wasn’t hearing it, his head felt like it was going to explode.

Steve’s voice calling out to him was the last thing he heard before passing out on the ground, his mind not being able to handle the influx of memories surfacing from somewhere deep inside of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I choose Nat and Tony to tell this part of story, well they were the two most effected by the stones, mainly because in the movie they were the ones that died.
> 
> The next chapters will deal with the team remembering things, not as strongly as Tony and Natasha though, as we get closer to the first step in the fight against Thanos, and what happens as a result of Tony's snap.
> 
> Please tell me if this made sense, I'm trying to condense every movie while changing them at the same time to fit what's happening the second time around.


	10. The Second Time Around

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes you need to walk through fire before you can come out on the other side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I first started writing this arc of the story, I didn't really know how I was going to do this part, originally I was just going to start from the beginning.... until the plot bunnies told me to get to this point.

“His heart stopped,” Bruce told him as Steve paced the hallway in the hospital. “We got it going again but it’s going to take a lot to keep him from dying on us.”

“He can’t die Bruce,” Steve said only stopping to see his kids in the waiting room. Morgan asleep on Kamala and Miles, Riri on the floor, her head on Kamala’s lap next to Morgan’s head, Peter was on the floor his legs spread out on top of Riri’s legs. Introductions had been hasty, and since that moment out on the ruins of the Facility, they had barely spoken. There hadn’t been a lively conversation between any of them, they were all exhausted and worried. “I can’t let him die.”

“We need to do something drastic to keep him alive and we just don’t know what to do Steve,” Bruce pulled him away from the waiting room away from his kids. Steve knew that it was because he was trying to keep the kids from seeing him break down, but it wasn’t going to work. Not when he had seen his husband’s pale body on the ground as  Thanos  blew away in the wind, not when he saw what the stones had done to him, not when he watched as the light in Tony’s eyes slowly dimmed.

“Bruce... please,” his voice was barely a whisper, he couldn’t lose this, not when they had gone through so much just to get to where they were, he couldn’t lose his husband.

“There’s one option, but I don’t know if it’s viable in any way.”

“Do it,” Steve said without hesitation. “Save him, not just for me, but for those kids in that room, for Nebula who needed her sister back, for Bucky who is still looking for Nat, for the Avengers, we can’t  lose  him.”

“He’s going to lose his arm,” Bruce told him but Steve already knew that Tony would just build himself a better one. Steve watched Bruce pace back and forth for a moment. “He might not have the ability to see through that eye either, but if it works it’ll save him,” Bruce continued, pacing further. “I’ll need your blood, and Tony’s notes on Extremis.”

At that Steve felt his heart stop, he knew that Tony had fixed the formula enough to save Pepper’s life ten years ago, he had used a piece of the formula to heal himself enough after the surgery to get rid of the arc reactor, but to use it on Tony now, he wasn’t sure if it would be too much for Tony’s body.

“I’ll give you my blood, I’ll give you everything I have, but please make sure that whatever you do, doesn’t cause him any pain,” he said. There was one thing that he didn’t want Tony to feel, and that was pain, because if in the end it didn’t work, and the last thing he heard from his husband were cries of agony, it would kill him for the rest of his life.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes with a nurse, and with Doctor Cho, and we’ll get right to it, until then, just sit with your kids, because right now they need you the most.”

Steve nodded, and patted Bruce’s shoulder before walking away, back towards the waiting room, the haunted images of his husband lying on the ground, keeping him awake. There was no possible way that he would be able to sleep until Tony was awake again. His steps were quiet, as he slowly made his way into the room, he sat next to his kids and silently cried to himself. This was a test, and it was one that he was fighting, and losing at the moment.

“Pops,” Miles said looking at him, his eyes watery.

“It’s fine, Bruce is still working on your dad,” he said wiping the tears away. “It’s just a lot.”

“I know,” Miles said smiling at him. “Aunt Sharon was calling around trying to locate... um... my parents.”

“It’s okay to be happy about them coming back Miles,” Steve told him, pulling his son into his arms. “It fine for all of you to be happy about them coming back.”

“We are,” Riri’s voice called out to him. “But, to us, you and dad are always going to be our family too, we’ll just have a bigger group of people who love us.”

“We won’t really move out either, because if we did who would keep dad and Morgan out of trouble,” Kamala added.

These were his kids, Tony and him had helped them as much as they all helped the two Avengers, “I wouldn’t trade anything in the world for any of you,” he said hugging them close.

The knock on the door drew his attention away from the kids and to Bruce standing at the door, Dr. Cho not far behind him. “We’re ready,” he said and Steve nodded.

“I’ll be back,” he told the kids before walking off with Bruce, and hopefully towards a solution to saving the man he loved.

* * *

His skin felt like it wasn’t his, it felt like he was in the wrong place, in the wrong body, he woke up on a mat in the gym, that much he knew but he still felt out of it. He wasn’t sure what had happened, why he had collapsed, not of it made any kind of sense to him. 

“What happened?” he asked though he wasn’t sure he would like the answer to the questions at all. It felt like something was messing with his mind and nothing was making any kind of sense.

“Well you fainted,” Steve told him, but it wasn’t something that he didn’t already know.

“Yeah, no shit, I just want to know why,” he said everything in the room felt a little hazy, nothing was right, nothing made sense. There was no reason why he was having memories about doing something, inklings of things that were about to happen, without having already lived them.

“I’m not sure,” Steve told him, and of course the guy didn’t know, science was more Bruce’s expertise. “Maybe you just have low blood sugar or something.”

Tony couldn’t help but laugh at what Steve was telling him, mainly because he was certain that it had nothing to do with low blood sugar. “I feel like I’m slowly going crazy,” Tony said though his voice was too low for any normal person to hear, but he saw how Steve had stiffened next to him.

“You’re not going crazy Tony, I think you just need to get a little more sleep, the last few weeks have been a little intense for all of us.”

“No,” he said looking the super soldier in the eye. “I honestly feel like the last twenty years of my life have been some elaborate joke.”

“They’re not Tony,” Steve said slowly pulling him off of the floor. “You’re one of the best men I know, but you’re horrible at taking care of yourself, so maybe try and get a little bit of sleep.”

“Yeah.... sure,” he answered but his mind was telling him that he should get JARVIS to run a full brain scan, because he shouldn’t have collapsed like he had.

It wasn’t until hours later, when Natasha walked into the workshop, that he knew he was officially going crazy. He had kept seeing visions of Steve over him, the shield being slammed into his chest, except that wasn’t something that had happened. There had also been a man with a metal arm, and a guy in a cat suit, and a giant man in a red, silver and black outfit.

“Are you alright?” she asked sitting closer than he was comfortable with at the moment. He didn’t want her to see him cracking, but she was going to see it happen otherwise because there was no way around him having a panic attack.

“Nat... I’m losing my mind,” he said to him running his fingers through his hair for what felt like the millionth time since he locked himself away from the world.

“No, you’re not, I know we’re both... well we’re seeing things and understanding them a little differently, but you’re not going crazy Tony.”

“You don’t understand,” he screamed out at her. “I was sparring with Steve a few hours ago and I collapsed.”

“Steve said you fainted,” she said and all he could do was glare at her. “Tony.”

“Fine, I fainted, but more memories or whatever the hell they are keep coming, and I don’t know what to make of them, it feels like something isn’t right, like I’m not in the right place, or the right body, or anything.”

“Try this, get some sleep tonight, and tomorrow we’ll go to Dr. Cho and ask her about this, maybe she’ll know something.”

He sighed, he knew he was defeated, he wasn’t even sure how long he had been in the workshop, all the was going through his head was the fact that he was going through this bullshit and it was throwing him off completely.

“I’ll get some sleep, but in the  morning,  we’re going to figure this out,” he told her before shutting everything down and heading towards his room, Natasha not far behind him. He knew that she was making sure that he actually made it to his room, and it should have annoyed him, but it was comforting in a way.

His legs gave out before he could make it to his room, and for some reason his body felt like it was on  fire.  Everything hurt. He could hear someone calling out to him, it wasn’t Natasha, but it felt like something he had lost. 

“Tony,” she called out to him, but everything felt like it was slowing down, as his body was engulfed in flames. “Tony,” she called again but it was drowned out as he screamed out.

“Everything hurts,” he whispered as he curled up into himself, the pain taking over every inch of his body. The last time he had been in this much pain was when he had been in  Afghanistan , except this was a hundred times worse.

“What’s happening,” Steve called out before he saw Tony on the floor. “Nat what’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” she said before everything in Tony’s world became muffled, the only thing he could hear was the ringing in his ears, all he could feel was the burning of his own body.

* * *

It was one thing to be told what was going to happen, and another thing to watch, while Dr. Cho and Bruce had modified the extremis formula enough that it would heal Tony from his current wounds, he knew that Tony wouldn’t have the ability to regrow limbs like the original test subjects. The whole thing had been enhanced with Steve’s blood, as well as the transfusions that Bruce was giving Tony from Steve’s blood directly. If it wasn’t for the tube in Tony’s throat, Steve was sure that he would have heard the man screaming at the top of his lungs.

“Steve,” Bruce called out from  the inside  of the surgical suite. “Go and be with your kids while we finish. I’ll call you when we’re done.”

Steve knew that it was Bruce’s way of telling him to not watch this part, mainly because this was going to be the most painful thing to watch, but he didn’t want to move, he didn’t want Tony to be alone. Even in a room full of people, he didn’t want to leave his husband. It wasn’t until Sam pulled him out of the room that he had broken down for what felt like the third time already.

“I can’t watch him in pain like that,” he said the tears falling. “I can’t lose him.”

“I know man,” Sam said even though he didn’t have the full story about what had happened in the last five years, Steve knew that Sam understood the whys of their relationship. “ Let's  just go sit in one of these rooms and wait, you’re not doing Tony any good by not resting.”

“I know, but... I can’t lose him.”

“I know man, trust me I know,” Sam said as he sat Steve down on one of the beds, Steve guessed that Bruce had gotten the room for him after taking a quarter of his blood volume, and he knew that he should rest, but he couldn’t. When he closed his eyes, all he could see was the light leaving Tony’s eyes, and it was haunting him. 

“Tell me about how you two got together,” Sam said to him, it was an olive branch if Steve had ever seen one. “Let me call Bucky over here, and you can tell us the story of how this all went down, while we force some food into you so you don’t collapse from low blood sugar or something.”

He let out a choked laugh, feeling tired for the first time since the fight with  Thanos , he was sure that he would die of a broken heart if he lost Tony, but he also knew that his kids would need him. It took fifteen minutes before Bucky arrived with food, but it had given him a chance to get himself together enough to not break down for a  fourth  time.

“Hey Stevie,” Bucky said as he set a tray down in front of him, three different kinds of  jello , along with a stack of sandwiches, a bottle of juice, another of water, and a third of something blue and weird. “Sam told me that you were going to tell us about you and Stark.”

Steve let out a choked laugh, “Yeah, if you want to hear about it.”

“Of course, we want to hear about it, we’re missing five years,” Sam said to him, and Bucky just smacked the other man. “What, everything felt like it happened yesterday, and we come back into the same fight except now Steve is kissing Stark.”

“Yeah well, it’s what happens when you get married,” Steve said to them both, looking at his wedding ring and remembering the promises he had made Tony four years before.

“MARRIED,” Sam yelled out and Bucky smacked him for a second time. “Dude, did you hear that?”

“Yeah I’m pretty certain that Wakanda heard that,” Bucky said before the door opened, revealing Wanda and Vision, along with his ragtag group of kids, and a few other additions to the group that he hadn’t expected, Nebula, Valkyrie and Thor were smiling, and they were  geniune  smiles from people who had lost so much, Riri was hiding behind the door, Miles was holding Morgan, Kamala was behind him, weirdly enough Peter was on the ceiling. Steve was sure that all of the Avengers and their loved ones were not far behind.

“See,” Sam said pointing out the group of people.

“What,” Miles said, we want to hear a story too.

“And who are you exactly, I didn’t get to hear about this earlier,” Sam said as the group walked in.

“He’s a spider guy,” Peter said with a smile as Sam and Bucky both groaned at hearing this.

“There’s more than one of you,” Bucky said sitting down in a nearby chair. Steve remembered that fight that the two had had with Peter what felt like an eternity ago now, and how much it had irked Sam to get beaten by a kid.

“I think it’s just the two of them,” Steve said smiling at his kids who were now on the floor next to the bed.

“I didn’t even want one of them,” Sam said leaning against the wall, as the room filled up with people. 

This was how he knew that they were all looking for comfort in one way or another, they were trying to keep  Steve’s  spirit up all the while Tony fought for his life. 

“Put Morgan on the bed,” he said to Miles as the sleeping little girl snuggled into her brother’s tired arms.

“Thank god,” Miles said as he laid the little girl down. “I may have super strength, but I don’t think that extends to carrying a kid around for very long.”

“Who are you,” Sam said again, as Riri, Kamala and Miles made sure to stick close to Steve.

“They’re my kids,” Steve said only to have everyone in the room who hadn’t gone through the last five years look at him like he  was  someone else entirely.

“What do you mean kids, you don’t have kids, you’re Steve Rogers,” Sam started, and Steve could see his friend attempt to process everything that was happening.

“It’s Stark-Rogers,” Steve corrected him before Sam could get any further. All Sam could do was let out a few choked sounds. “What you wanted the story and then you started questioning them, so at some point you’re going to hear it.”

“Well you kissed Stark on the freaking battlefield, in front of thousands of people, I’m pretty sure I’ve never met more than half of them, and then your answer had been later, well now it’s later and I need to know the story before my brain explodes from too much information.”

It was one thing to run circles around Sam, and another to see the man literally freaking out over all of the information going through his mind as he watch, in utter horror, as his whole life changed without him there to see it.

“There’s a video of the wedding,” Riri said smiling at her father. “I know, I was there.”

“Yeah, I was hoping to use it for our fifth anniversary,” Steve said with a smile, he wanted to be hopeful, that Tony would wake up and they would get that fifth anniversary celebration. Maybe  they  could renew their vows in front of everyone they loved and cared about.

“We’ll do it,” Kamala said with a smile, “I want to do it.”

“But if you did it then we’d get an hour of Aunt Carol and Uncle  Rhodey  making goo-goo eyes at each other,” Riri said which only made someone laugh from the background. When Steve  turned,  he saw  Rhodey  standing there, a haunted look in his eyes, the same one that Steve held in his own after Tony had snapped his fingers.

“Okay, it’s story time,” Steve said to the room smiling as he thought of his wedding day to Tony, and of the last five years of their lives.

* * *

“What’s wrong with him,” Natasha said to Bruce as they laid Tony down on one of the tabled in medical, Tony couldn’t scream anymore, not since Bruce had injected him with a sedative, but the man was laying perfectly still.

“I don’t know Nat,” Bruce said as he started running a battery of tests, all she could do was watch as it happened. “Did he say anything to you, anything about him feeling any kind of pain.”

“No,” she said to him, thinking back to their conversation in the workshop. “Wait, he told me that he collapsed when he had sparred with  Steve  earlier.”

“Collapsed how?”

“I don’t know, and I doubt Steve knows,” she said not sure of what to say herself. “Maybe something happened during the last mission, I don’t know, all I know is that when I talked to  him  he said he felt...” she didn’t know if it was her place to say anything. She couldn’t betray Tony’s trust on this, especially since she was going through the same thing herself.

“Nat, what did he say?”

She couldn’t keep this from Bruce, they were friends and she knew that he needed to know, “He told me that he felt like he was losing his mind.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Bruce said before a looked crossed his face. “The file, the one Hill had on those kids at the base in  Sokovia , the girl had some kind of power right.”

“Yeah, something about manipulation or something,” she said as Steve came around the corner with Dr. Cho not far behind him. “You think she did something to him?”

“I don’t know,” Bruce said trying his best, and she knew it but she was also afraid, it was one thing for Tony to be fine one day, but for him to deteriorate as quickly as he was, she wasn’t sure what was happening.

Before she could say anything else, she got a dizzy feeling overwhelming her, the last few times she had felt like that was when the memories overwhelmed her, but she hadn’t had a new memory in a while, and this felt different, as if something was pulling at the back of her mind.

“Nat are you okay,” she heard Steve say as he rushed up next to her. 

“I don’t know,” she said, looking up at the Captain, “Something doesn’t feel right,” she felt something pulling at her, something that she was sure wasn’t a memory of anything. She wondered if this was what Tony had been feeling before the whole world went sideways on him, but she hadn’t gone through anything recently.

When she woke up, she knew that what it was that she had seen hadn’t been a dream, not one of her own making at least. But what she saw around her wasn’t what she had been expecting either, because instead of waking up in the compound where the Quantum machine had been, she was out in a charred mess. There was blood in her hair but other than that she was alright. How she got to where she was  well,  she wasn’t sure of it, but she did know one thing, she needed to find her family.

* * *

Most of the story had been told by Steve, with other parts filled in by everyone else in the room, it was one thing to hear so much of it himself, but it reminded him of how much they had all been through. Every time Natasha had been brought  up,  he couldn’t help but see the way Bucky had looked at all of them. She was the one person who was missing in the room and he knew that there was no way of bringing her back, not if what Clint had said was true.

“Man, I can’t believe it,” Sam said looking at  everyone.  “Last thing I remembered were you two idiots pining for each other.”

“We weren’t pining,” Steve said with a smile, it was nice to have something he could tell Tony when he woke up, because  that’s  all he could do now, was think about it in the terms of when it would happen and not if it would happen.

Before he could say anything else Riri’s phone started ringing, it was weird because everyone they knew was in the room with them, with the exception of Bruce and Tony.

“Pops,” she said looking at the caller ID photo before handing the phone to him.

“This can’t be right,” he said before the phone rang again in his own hand. He could feel the vibrations in his hand, Tony had made all of their phones nearly indestructible, for reasons like their fight with  Thanos , but he hadn’t believed it possible for someone to call from the dead. “Hello,” he said to the phone, he could hear his voice crack as he said it.

“Steve,” Natasha’s voice rang through the ear piece and he could swear that his own heart would stop beating right then and there. He dropped the phone, feeling like it had burned him, but before he could do anything else Bucky quickly grabbed it and started talking in Russian.

“What’s happening,” he asked his childhood best friend, wanting to know what the hell was going on and why the universe had decided to fuck with them even more. 

Before he could ask again, Bucky was out the door, Steve could hear his footsteps pacing outside of the room, but he wasn’t sure what to think. “Miles do you have your phone,” he asked turning to his son.

“No, it’s under the rubble at the compound,” Miles said looking at him before turning to Kamala. “Give Pops your phone.”

“Oh,” she said digging it out of her suit, “Sure,” if there was one  thing,  they all knew about Kamala, it was that she carried her phone around no matter what. 

Steve picked it up and clicked on the app button that Tony had put on all of their phones, it connected him to FRIDAY immediately. “What can I do for you Captain Rogers,” she said and Steve couldn’t help but smile, because even after they had gotten married Tony refused to let FRIDAY call him anything else, even their pet names for each other.

“I need you to get one of the satellites and point it towards wherever  Natasha’s  phone is pining from,” he said his hands shaking as he did. “I need you to tell me if it’s her.”

Everyone in the room looked at him before turning to where Bucky was currently pacing back and forth. What Steve wanted was for one miracle to happen, but what if two of them happened that night. He wasn’t sure if he could survive if everything was a lie.

The screen lit up as it pointed towards the wreckage of the compound, slowly pinpointing itself at a single target, with red braided hair and a black suit pacing back and forth. “Confirm identity,” he said while the silence filled the room.

“Natasha  Romaoff , Black Widow,” FRIDAY answered, but before he could tell her to call up a  quinjet  to go and confirm what he was seeing, he saw the figure moving towards the  half-wrecked  hanger in the corner.

“She’s alive,” Bucky said when he walked back into the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is this good? I have no clue, but it's what I wanted to happen, I want Nat alive and everyone struggling to be happy while everything is happening. What will happen to Tony, well you'll find out in the next chapter!!

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on tumblr @yuniesan


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